The Storm
by Joe's girl
Summary: Pure fluff! Tony and Michelle post season 4. Spoilers for all of season 4. Please read and review.
1. Part I: The Rain, Chapter 1: Tony

_Just a little T/M fluff. (Dessler asked for some fluff and I thought I'd oblige.) This story was inspired by a thunder storm. I love thunder storms. I particularly like storms that occur during the night and I can lie in bed and enjoy them. _

_I guess I have to add the usual disclaimer. Don't own it, wish I did. So until I come up with my own characters for a TV show and make millions, I guess I'll just have to be satisfied writing fanfiction and getting review from my wonderful readers!_

_Those of you who have read my stories before know that I beg shamelessly for reviews! Please, if you read, let me know that you are out there by reviewing. I accept anonymous reviews so you have no excuse not to hit the submit review button and say "hi"!_

**THE STORM**

PART I: THE RAIN

Chapter 1: Tony

It rarely rains at this time of year in LA, but it rained yesterday morning. It rained hard for about an hour. That hour was critical to me and the rain might actually have saved my life. The fact that he couldn't hear the rain on the phone call that Mandy made to Michelle was what tipped Jack off that I was still alive.

It started raining while I was being held by Mandy, a mercenary who was working for Marwan. I knew when she took my clothes and handcuffed me that she would have no qualms about killing me. I could see it in her eyes. I had only seen one other woman with eyes that vacant and they belonged to Nina. For right now, Mandy needed to keep me alive if she was going to have any chance to escape, but after that I was useless and I could identify her so she would have to kill me. I also knew that if I was going to live, I would have to save myself. CTU wasn't going to waste resources on me. At the moment, Mandy's life was more important than mine. She could lead CTU to Marwan, to the missile. Millions of lives would be saved; mine was certainly expendable.

It's funny how things change. Twenty-four hours earlier I would have been happy to die. Too afraid and not yet desperate enough, I couldn't get up the courage, or frankly, even the ambition to kill myself but I was slowly drinking myself to death. I had lost everything: my job, my pension and for a while, my freedom. I was labeled a traitor to a country that I had protected and defended for all of my adult life. I was fortunate that I had Jack on my side and that he had President Palmer's ear. Palmer finally agreed to pardon me but those months in prison did something to me. I came out a different person, someone that I didn't know and even worse, someone that I didn't like. I started drinking in hopes that it would make me happier, that I could relax and that I could go back to living my life among my friends and family. But, not surprisingly, alcohol didn't solve the problem. I retreated into myself and wouldn't let anyone in, not even my beloved Michelle. I wanted to let her in. I wanted her to be a part of my life. I wanted things to be the way they once were when all that mattered in the world was that at the end of the day Michelle and I ended up in bed and in each other's arms. I wanted all of that but I couldn't seem to make it happen so I just drank more. Eventually Michelle couldn't take any more and left. I've never been more crushed by anything in my life. Going to prison had not been as hard as watching her walk out of the door leaving me standing there drunk and crying and bitter. At that point I had truly lost everything.

But now everything had changed. I didn't want to die any more. I wanted to live. I wanted to survive this and go back to CTU and find Michelle and leave this godforsaken city forever. Less than an hour earlier, Michelle had told me that she wanted to spend her life with me, that she was willing to leave CTU and start over with me. My heart was unbelievably light when I left CTU in the helicopter despite the fact that I was going out into the field and into untold risks. I would be fine. I had to be. Michelle still loved me and we were going to start over. The thought of dying now horrified me. Not only did I not want to die, I worried about what it would do to Michelle. Someone later told me how she had reacted when she watched the car exploded on the monitor. They said that she nearly collapsed and that she had let out a tortured scream. She had to be helped, nearly carried, up to the office. It breaks my heart that she had to live through that.

That's all behind me now. Jack ignored Bill Buchanan's orders, which had come from the White House, to redeploy back to CTU and he and Curtis saved my life. The only thing I could think of was Michelle. I needed her to know that I was alive. I needed her to know that I loved her. I don't think I've ever been as happy and as contented as I was when I got back to CTU and I held her in my arms. God, it felt good! The missile had been destroyed, only one nuclear power plant had melted down and Michelle was back in my arms. There would be hours of debriefs and paperwork but then we would be free to go home. Together.

My joy was amazingly short lived. Michelle had paperwork to do. There was some property damage when the missile was brought down. She had to deal with the owners and local hazmat teams. She asked me to do Jack's debrief. First I would be cleared by the medical unit and then I could shower and change clothes. Black CTU tee shirts, black pants and boots were always available in the storage room. I had just stepped from the shower room into the locker room to dress when one of the agents told me that Jack was to be turned over to the Chinese. Minutes later Jack walked in and we talked. I told him it wasn't fair. We were interrupted when Jack got a phone call. I suspect that President Palmer was on the phone but Jack would not confirm that. Whoever it was made it clear to Jack that his life was in danger and that he had to get away from CTU. I don't know how Jack could think as clearly as he did under that kind of stress, but within a minute or two we had come up with a plan to get him out.

It worked like a charm. Soon Michelle and I were dropping Jack off at the railroad yard. That was so hard. I could barely look at him to say goodbye. He has been such a good friend and in all likelihood, I'll never see him again. Oh, I'm sure he'll find a way to get in touch with me, but we'll never play tennis again or go out for drinks. Some day I'll get a letter in the mail filled with blank paper and a return address that I don't recognize. Or I'll get a phone call and when I answer there won't be anyone on the line and the caller ID will register a number I've never seen before. Either way, I'll know that it's Jack's way of telling Michelle and me that he's okay and that if I have to get in touch with him, I can. Michelle and I watched as Jack walked away. I was grateful that it had stopped raining. At least Jack didn't have to make his journey in the rain. That would have made it all the more miserable.

Michelle and I returned to CTU. The place was in such a state of confusion that no one missed us. They thought we were back in sector C grieving privately. We walked back into the bullpen area just as Secretary Heller was arriving. Audrey was in such a state of shock that she had been taken to the medical unit. Jim Heller hadn't been briefed on the situation yet. He only knew that Jack was to be turned over to the Chinese. He walked angrily into the situation room indicating to Bill Buchanan and to Michelle and me that we were all to follow him.

"Where are they holding Jack?" Heller demanded as the situation room door closed.

"Mr. Secretary…" Bill started, but Heller cut him off.

"I want to talk to the Secret Service agent who has Jack in custody."

"Maybe you should sit down, Mr. Secretary," I told him.

"I don't need to sit down, Almeida. The Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense is being held by the Secret Service and I demand to see him."

"You don't understand, Mr. Secretary. The situation has changed. Please sit down," I directed him.

Heller looked from my face to Michelle's to Bill's. Buchanan nodded. "Please sit down, sir. We have some news for you."

"News? What kind of news?" he asked with a scowl.

I took a deep breath and started. It's a good thing that I'm a convincing liar. "Jack apparently wasn't willing to be taken by the Chinese. He must have thought it over and knew that he would be tortured and probably killed, so he tried to escape."

Heller stood up suddenly. "My God, Tony! He tried to escape. What happened? Where is he?"

"Unfortunately, sir, he got into a gun fight with the Secret Service agent. Jack was just trying to lay down cover so he could get out, but the Secret Service agent returned fire and shot Jack."

"How badly is he hurt?" Heller asked hoping for the best.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said as I shook my head. "By the time I got to him, he was gone. The coroner's office just picked up his body."

Heller dropped into the chair he had been sitting in. I don't think his reaction could have been worse had his own child been killed. He sat upright with his head back and his hand pressed to his mouth for several seconds. Then he leaned forward and put his head in his hands. His grief was palpable. "Does Audrey know?" he asked in a voice just above a whisper.

"Yes, sir. She's in shock. She's been taken to the medical unit," Buchanan told him. "You should probably go to her."

"I'll take you over there, sir," I told him knowing that Bill and Michelle both had mounds of paperwork to complete.

"Thank you, Tony," Bill said in a quiet, expressionless voice. I wondered when I looked at him how he felt about me. Hours earlier he admitted that he cared for Michelle and that he had struck out with her. If I were dead, he would have had a chance with her. I really had to wonder if Bill would have been sorry if I had actually been in the car when it exploded.

I walked with Secretary Heller to the medical unit. We didn't speak; there was nothing to say. I noticed his posture. Strange. The man had clearly been in charge today. When he entered a room everyone there could feel his presence. Regardless of who was "running" CTU at any given moment, be it Erin or Michelle or Bill or even me, Heller was clearly in charge. The man next to me right now didn't look like he could take charge of anything. His shoulders slumped and he looked defeated. Unlike the man I had met yesterday afternoon, he looked every bit of his 64 years.

"Here you go, sir," I said as I opened the door for him. I think he thanked me, but I couldn't actually hear him. As we walked in I saw Hannah Bateman. Hannah had been a nurse at CTU for as long as anyone could remember. "Hannah, this is Secretary Heller. His daughter, Audrey Raines, is here and he'd like to see her."

"Certainly, sir," she said. "Right this way."

We followed her down the hall. She opened the glass door for Secretary Heller. I stood back and watched him go in. Audrey sat at the end of the bed. An unending stream of tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn't sob or make a sound and she didn't try to wipe the tears away. She sat motionless and staring off into the distance, her teary eyes focused on something that the rest of us couldn't see. Her father stood in front of her. He said nothing but reached out and took her into his arms. It was then that she finally began to sob. It was painful to watch, but for some reason that wasn't clear to me, I had difficulty looking away.

"Mr. Almeida," said a voice from behind me, "I have Agent Manning on the phone for you." The young woman pointed to the phone on a nearby desk.

Curtis was ready to do my debrief. I left the medical unit and made my way to one of the briefing rooms. I've done dozens of debriefs in my years with CTU, but none was ever as hard as this one. I was bone tired and I had to make sure that I kept my story straight. If anyone doubted that Jack was dead, they would ask for a positive ID on his body and his cover would be blown and his life would be in danger. Chloe had managed to tag the body of an unidentified terrorist who had been part of the assault team that had attacked Jack and Paul near McLennon-Forrester. He was blond and blue eyed and had a similar build to Jack's but he would never pass as his double. The body would be cremated almost immediately. Those were Jack's wishes and he told me that Kim knew that. He had expressly told her many times that if he was killed, she was not to view the body. Viewing her mother's body had been far too traumatic. He wanted to be cremated and have the ashes scattered in the ocean near Venice beach where he had scattered Teri's ashes.

So I took extra care during the debrief. Fortunately, if there were any discrepancies, Curtis didn't notice them. Michelle would ultimately sign off on the final copy, so as long as I got past Curtis, I was home free and, more importantly, so was Jack.

I finally finished debriefing and was free to go. I was pretty sure that I had been convincing but was really too tired to tell. One good thing was that Curtis was as tired as I was and he wasn't likely to notice any mistakes. I made my way toward Michelle's office and ran into Secretary Heller and Audrey who were headed for the exit.

"Tony," Heller said when he saw me, "come into the conference room for a moment, I'd like to talk to you." Both he and Audrey were more composed that when I last saw them. The Secretary was standing straight again looking more hawkish and virile than he had just a few hours ago.

The three of us entered the conference room and I closed the door. Audrey sat down, but Jim Heller and I stood. "What can I do for you, Mr. Secretary?" I asked.

"First of all, I never thanked you for saving my daughter's life yesterday," he said. "Do you have children, Tony?"

"No, sir, not yet," I answered.

"If you had children, you would understand that the fear of losing a child is far greater than any other fear you could possibly have. I lost my wife a few years back and that was hard enough. I don't know if I could have gone on today if Audrey had died. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for risking your life to save hers."

"You don't have to thank me, sir. I'm glad I was able to do it."

"Secondly, I know you and Jack were close and I was so shocked when I learned of his death that it didn't occur to me to tell you how sorry I am for your loss."

I nodded my thanks. I wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Lastly, I'd like to offer you a job. I would like you to come to Washington with me and replace Jack as my Special Assistant. From what I could see today, you're more than capable of doing the job and I think we would work well together."

I was stunned by his offer. "Thank you, sir," I said. "I don't know what to say. I hope you aren't offering me this job because you feel you owe it to me. I never meant to put a price tag on saving Audrey's life."

"That has nothing to do with it. I can never repay what you did for Audrey. I think you're the right person for this job and I hope you'll take it."

"I'll have to think this over, sir. I have to talk to Michelle about it."

"Michelle? I thought you two were divorced."

"We are, but we decided today to try and start over."

"Congratulations, I'm happy for you. You could start over in Washington you know," Heller suggested.

"I know that, sir, but that's a decision that we have to make together."

"I understand. How about if I give you a month to decide? After that I'll start looking for someone else."

"Fair enough, sir," I told him as we shook hands. "You two should get back to your hotel and get some rest."

"Actually, we're headed to the airport. We've got clearance to fly back to Washington. Let my office know when arrangements have been made for Jack's funeral. Audrey and I want to be there."

"That will be up to his daughter," I told him, "but we'll get in touch with you as soon as we know anything."

"Does she know yet?" he asked.

"Two agents that Jack worked with for years talked to her husband a little while ago. The agents are going with him to tell her."

"I thought maybe you would be assigned to tell her."

"Buchanan asked me, but I couldn't do it. I was there when she found out about her mother and I just couldn't be the one who told her that her father was dead." That was only partially the truth. Michelle and I both felt that we couldn't tell her and watch her fall apart all the while knowing that Jack was alive. Once someone else told her, we thought we could play the game, but there was just no way we could be the ones who broke the news to her.

Heller nodded to indicate that he understood. By now Audrey was standing. She still seemed shocked and dazed but she was making eye contact now and silently acknowledging the conversation between her father and me. I walked over and hugged her.

"I'm so sorry, Audrey. I wish things had ended differently. When I met you this afternoon, I really thought Jack had met his soul mate. I may not have shown it at the time, but I was really happy for you two. No one should have to go through what you did today."

"Thank you for everything, Tony," Audrey said through her tears. "I'll see you in a few days."

I said goodbye and made my way through the bullpen toward Michelle's office. I could see her through the glass door. She was on the phone and not looking in my direction. I'll never be able to get over how incredibly beautiful she is, even now when she hasn't slept in well over 24 hours. Her hair was a little messy and her make up was almost nonexistent, most of it was washed away when cried. She had obviously tried to fix it, but hadn't done a great job. Her clothes were wrinkled and she looked as if she could fall asleep sitting in the chair with the phone in her hand. Still she was beautiful, stunning, a goddess. Words could never describe how beautiful this woman is to me.

I rapped lightly on the door. She looked up and her tired eyes sparkled the way they used to. She waved me in and stood up. As she continued her phone conversation, she walked over to the printer a few feet away from the desk and took several sheets of paper off of it. She leafed through them and pulled a single page from the center of the stack. She handed that sheet to me. I only needed to read the first sentence to know that it was her letter of resignation. I read it again and let the words sink in. Michelle was really leaving CTU and she was leaving to be with me. I was both flattered and scared.

That Michelle would give up her career for me was almost too much to believe. Make no mistake, she was on the fast track. She could easily be Regional Director in one of the smaller regions within the next year or so and in a major city in less than five years. She was barely 35. That would make her the youngest Regional Director of a major city in the nation, a fact that would not go unnoticed at Langley. But it all scared me, too. What if she regretted it in a few years? What then? Would she be angry with me for pushing her to leave? Would it destroy our relationship? Maybe I shouldn't have asked her to leave CTU. Just because it was what I wanted doesn't mean that it was right for her.

Michelle hung up the phone and looked at me. "Well, what do you think? Is the letter okay? I gave them four weeks notice. Do you think that's reasonable?"

"The letter is fine and the four weeks is more than enough," I started, "but Michelle, are you sure this is what you want? This is it. Once you give this to Buchanan, it's over. Your career with the CIA is effectively ended. You do understand that, don't you?"

Michelle looked confused. "Of course I understand that. I thought that's what you wanted. I leave here and we go somewhere else and start over. Isn't that what you said?"

"Michelle, I want this more than anything in the world. I just want to know that you want it. I want to know that in ten years you aren't going to regret it and blame me for forcing you to leave. I want to spend my life with you, Michelle, but I need for you to be happy with your decision."

She walked over to me and put her arms around my waist. "You took me by surprise when you first asked me to leave CTU and go with you but it didn't take me very long to realize that you were right. I love you. I'm nothing without you. I'm an empty shell. For the last six months all I've done is get up and go to work in the morning and work as long as I possibly could and then go home to an empty house and hope that I collapsed from exhaustion. I even went into the office most weekends just so I didn't have to think about you or me or us and what we had and how happy we were. And after today…" she stopped for a moment obviously trying to compose herself but the tears came anyway. "After today, after all the bad things that happened, the people that died and the horrible decisions that had to be made and you being held hostage and now Jack… I can't do it any more, Tony. Now I know it's time to leave."

She continued, "I called Chase about 15 minutes ago to see how Kim was doing. You know, he told me that when he walked into the house in the middle of the day Kim just looked at him and asked 'How did he die?' She knew without even being told. She's spent her entire life knowing that someday somebody would walk in and tell her that her father was dead. What a horrible thing for a person to have to live with. I don't want our children wondering when somebody is going to come through the door and tell them that one of us has been killed. I want to leave CTU while there's still time."

I pulled her close. It felt so good to hold her body close to mine, to be able to comfort her when she was so obviously in pain. I held her for a long moment before she pulled back a bit and looked at me. "So, I think it's time for me to sign that letter and give it to Bill. Then we can go home."

_We can go home_. Four simple words, each with only one syllable. _We can go home_. A total of eleven letters that were more beautiful to me than any novel or poem or song could ever be.

"Home?" I whispered not really believing it. "We can go home together?"

Michelle smiled. "Yes, of course, we can go home _together_, the two of us."

"I love you," I whispered softly as if it were a secret and I was afraid that others might hear. "I love you with all of my heart."

_The next chapter: Part I, Chapter 2: Michelle_


	2. Part I: The Rain, Chapter 2: Michelle

_Thank you EVERYONE for your wonderful reviews. Some of you I know from my other stories (Welcome back! Great to hear from you.) and some of you are new(Thanks for reading. Hope you'll stay with me.) _

_When I started to write this story it was from Tony's POV, but it bothered me that I didn't know what Michelle was thinking. So I decided that her POV needed to be heard as well. So here is the same time period as Chapter 1 only from Michelle's POV. I'm going to do that with each chapter. First I'll tell it from Tony's perspective, then from Michelle's. The one problem I am finding is that since I wrote Tony first, his chapter gets the majority of the dialogue. I don't want to rehash dialogue unless I absolutely have to do it to make a point. _

_Also, I'm sorry if I rehash some of what happened on the show. I try to do it only when necessary. (Jade, I know you thought I rehashed too much in chapter 1. If you tell me what needs to be edited out, I will consider it.)_

_Again, if you read, I hope you'll take a second to review. I'm particularly interested in what you think of the format._

PART I: THE RAIN

Chapter 2: Michelle

I sat and watched the rain fall on the windshield and roll down the windows of my SUV making the view even more blurred than it would have already been through my tear-filled eyes. Tony was gone. Nothing else mattered. I watched on the monitor as the car exploded. Not once, but twice. The first explosion was from the charges that Tony's abductor had set. The second explosion occurred when the fire hit the gas tank. I'll never forget Jack's voice.

"They're gone, Bill," he shouted. "She blew herself up. She took Tony with her."

I didn't believe it. Even though I watched it happen, I was sure that Tony would find a way to get out the car. The team on the site quickly confirmed that there were two bodies in the car, no survivors.

I think I must have collapsed. I could hear myself scream and I felt arms, possibly Bill's but I'm not sure, around me keeping me upright and slowly lowering me to the floor. The rest is a blur. Someone helped me to the office and set me on the upholstered bench there. Whoever it was, I don't even know for sure right now, asked me if they could get me anything. I must have indicated "no" but I really don't remember. They left me sitting there alone and numb. I may have just lost the love of my life, but there was still a missile to find and their talents were needed elsewhere.

So I sat alone with my thoughts. Why didn't I do what the woman had asked? Why didn't I just clear the northeast driveway and let her go? Why did I tell Bill? Maybe she would have killed Tony anyway, but at least he would have had a chance. By telling Bill and getting Jack involved I killed Tony as sure as if I had put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger myself. It was my fault.

Eventually Bill came in and sat down with me. He said some kind words, tried to tell me that I had done what Tony would have wanted me to do. Even in my state at that moment I knew it was all bullshit. I had so much to live for an hour ago and now I had nothing.

I tried to tell Bill that I wanted to help. I guess I was just doing what I had seen Audrey do earlier. I wanted to keep working so I didn't have to think. I didn't want to think about Tony, about how much I loved him, about how badly I had screwed up our relationship, about how I had left him when he needed me the most. I didn't want to think about what I was going to do with my life now that I had lost him. I didn't want to think about going to his funeral or having to face his parents. (Oh God! His parents were going to be devastated.) I wanted to at least be able to say that I helped find the missile. Tony would be so proud of me for being strong.

But, no, Bill ordered me to go home. So now here I sit. I can't possibly go home. How can I face the house that Tony and I bought together? There are pictures of the two of us everywhere. I never had the heart to move them when we were divorced. And frankly, I'm not fit to drive right now. So I'll sit here for a while and wonder what it might be like to be dead. There would be no missile to worry about and no terrorists making my life a living hell. And Tony would be there. We would be together.

I shivered. I don't know why. The car was hot and humid. I could have started it and put on the air conditioning, but I didn't have the energy or the desire. I looked back and forth across the dashboard and smiled ruefully. I bought this car, a Mercedes SUV, as a present to myself when I was named Assistant Director at Division. I decided that I deserved it and that it would make me happy, something I hadn't been in a very long time. It all seemed so stupid and materialistic now. The only "thing" that could ever make me happy was Tony. I knew it all along and as much as I wanted to believe otherwise, I always knew the truth.

My phone rang and broke into the random thoughts that were swirling in my brain. Let it ring, I thought. There is no one I really want to talk to. It rang again. I found it annoying, irritating. Why couldn't whoever it was let me grieve in peace? It rang a third time. The only way to stop it from ringing was to answer it.

"Hello," I said trying to keep my voice steady.

"Michelle, it's Bill."

I thought he had called to tell me to come back to work. He needs me, I thought. I'll go back inside and have a purpose. I won't have to sit here and think about Tony.

"Tony's alive," he said.

Alive? This was either a very cruel joke or a serious hallucination. I hadn't slept in 24 hours now, so I could easily be hallucinating.

I listened numbly as Bill said that Tony wasn't in the car and that he'd let Tony explain. The next thing I knew, I was listening to Tony's voice over the phone.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" was all I could say while I cried. He explained what happened and told me that he loved me. He was on his way back to CTU and soon we would be together again.

I sat stunned for a few moments trying to pull myself together. I was crying and laughing at the same time. I found some tissues in my bag and dried my face. Then I turned on the car's interior light and looked into the mirror. My face was blotchy and red from crying and I didn't want Tony to see me that way. I had make up with me and decided to go back into CTU and fix myself up in the ladies' locker room.

I gathered my bag and phone and umbrella and went back into the building. I was just walking inside when I heard a cheer go up. Sounds like that were rare at CTU so I knew that we must have found the missile and destroyed it. My suspicion was confirmed when I walked around the corner and ran into Chloe. She was grinning from ear to ear, something she didn't do very often.

"Chloe, what happened? Did you find the missile?" I asked her.

"It was headed straight for Los Angeles and we just brought it down!" she said happily as she gave me a hug. "Hey, I hear that Tony's okay. That's good news, Michelle. I'm happy for you." Coming from most people that would have been a normal statement, but coming from Chloe, it was totally unexpected.

I went into the locker room and washed my face and sort of fixed my make up with some samples I carried in my bag. I joined Bill in the bullpen where he was still offering congratulations to everyone and handing out "mop up" assignments to already exhausted personnel. He smiled and hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

"You did a great job today, Michelle."

"I made some mistakes," I admitted.

"No more than anyone else. You're human," he assured me. Bill looked down for a moment and then back up at me. "Tony's on his way back. He'll be here in a few minutes. I'm happy for you two. You belong together."

I hugged him again and thanked him. I knew how Bill felt about me and how hard it must have been for him to say that. He had tried so hard to start a relationship with me and as much as I liked him, I just couldn't do it. It wasn't Bill, it was me. I knew that I still loved Tony and no other man really interested me. I just wanted my Tony back.

Bill asked me to do a damage assessment in the area where the missile came down. I would need to coordinate local police, fire departments and hazmat units. I was getting my first damage reports when I saw Tony come back in to CTU. I interrupted the young woman briefing me and told her that I wanted to pick it up later. With that, she was gone and I was in Tony's arms. He never felt so warm or so strong before. I can't explain it. He was tired and sweaty and needed some medical attention and a shower, but he had never looked so good to me in all the time we had known each other.

As happy as I was to hold him and to kiss him, I felt unbelievably guilty about not trying harder to save him. He told me that I did what I had to do. He reminded me that it was over. I fell back in his arms and reveled in the warmth.

Soon I was back in the office dealing with the damage from the destroyed missile. Tony was showering and as soon as he finished debriefing, we would go home. I could barely contain myself. I was only half listening to the fire captain that I had on the phone. The other half of me was composing my resignation letter. I was debating whether to give six weeks notice or only four. I settled on four weeks. That was plenty of time after all the sacrifices that I made for this place.

I finished up on the phone and turned my full attention to the letter. I had only reviewed the first couple of sentences when my phone rang. It was Chloe.

"Michelle, have you heard the rumor that Jack is being turned over to the Chinese government?" she asked.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Edgar overheard Buchanan on the phone talking to Mike Novick from the president's office. Edgar can be a little screwy but he usually gets his facts straight."

"I don't know anything about it, Chloe. Let me talk to Bill."

I called Bill and the rumor was confirmed. "What is President Logan thinking?" I said angrily as if this was Bill's fault.

"Michelle, I'm as outraged as you but there isn't much we can do about it."

I tried to think of a way to help Jack. He was good friends with President Palmer. I wondered if Palmer could help. My thoughts were disturbed by another ringing phone. This time it was my cell phone that rang and disturbed me. The only person I could imagine would be calling me on my cell was my mother. She probably just got up and heard the news and thought she could get an inside scoop. I really didn't want to deal with my mother right now but if I didn't answer she would assume I was dead and when she finally caught up with me I would want to be dead. So I thought it best to answer it.

I looked at the caller ID readout and all it said was "Private Number." I guess this isn't Mom, I thought. "Hello," I said not knowing who to expect I would find on the other end.

"Michelle," Tony said quietly, "meet me in the storage room behind the locker room and don't tell anyone that you talked to me or where you're going."

"What's this about, Tony?" I asked.

"I'll tell you when you get here. This is urgent Michelle. Please, do this for me."

I hung up and started down the stairs from the office and back toward the locker rooms. I opened the storage room door and Tony was waiting for me.

"What's this about, Tony?" I asked again. "Why are you calling me on my cell from a private line?"

"Because I can't afford to have any calls to you traced. I used a scramble phone," he said anxiously. "Michelle, we need to help Jack escape." He was keeping his voice low.

"What?"

"You heard me. He was supposed to be turned over to the Chinese government, but he just got a warning that the Secret Service agent coming to take him into custody has orders to kill him. We have to get him out of here."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Jack already has a plan," he quickly explained the details of the plan to me. "I need you to get me a syringe of epinephrine and a phone with a scramble filter. Have Chloe get a new identity for Jack so he can get across the border."

I nodded and, like a child, did what I was told. I wanted to help Jack, but this was all so illegal. The escape plan could fall apart at any number of points and if it did, Jack would be caught and the rest of us would be charged as accessories. I had to put that thought out of my head. This had to work, or Jack would either end up dead or in a Chinese prison.

I pulled Chloe aside and told her what was going on. She agreed to help without hesitation. Chloe didn't trust or even like many people but she and Jack had a certain chemistry. Not in a sexual or romantic way, but there was an understanding, a bond between them that was difficult to explain.

A few minutes later I heard the lock down alarm go off and I knew the plan was in progress. Amazingly it went off without a hitch. For a few seconds after Tony gave Jack the epinephrine it looked as if it wasn't going to work. I thought he was really dead. I don't think I've ever been so grateful as when Jack started to cough. I could see the relief in Tony's face.

Now was the hard part. Chloe had to switch the information in the database so that the body we sent the coroner's office matched up with Jack's information. Tony played the part of Jack's distraught best friend refusing to let anyone near Jack's "body" and insisting on putting him into the body bag himself.

Chloe provided the body bag which Tony stuffed with linens from the storage room then wheeled the gurney back to medical. While he did that, Jack climbed into a laundry cart, I threw some linens on top of him and pushed him out through a rear entrance. All of this was made easier by the fact that Jack had disabled the security cameras in a way that would take at least a half hour or so to fix them.

When Tony got to medical, he made his way back to the morgue type refrigerator that sat in a remote corner. He emptied the linens from the body bag into a laundry cart and put Jack's toe tag on the body of an unidentified terrorist. He left the medical unit and made his way out to my car. We drove off with Jack under linens in the back seat. We dropped him off near the railroad yard with a scramble phone and a new identity.

I wondered as I said goodbye to him if we would ever see him again. There was a good chance that we wouldn't, but by the same token, Jack was resourceful and the possibility certainly remained that he would find a way to safely contact us in the future.

We returned to CTU without ever being missed. I was in the situation room with Tony and Bill as they delivered the news of Jack's "death" to Secretary Heller. He took the news badly. He obviously had developed a good relationship with Jack and considered him more that an employee. His concern quickly turned to his daughter. Such a typical parent reaction, I thought. Audrey was an adult but he was far more worried about her than about himself, the selfless act of a parent.

Bill asked me if Tony and I would go out to Valencia and break the news to Kim. I refused. There was no way I was going to watch that girl be devastated by this news. I had enough trouble watching Jim Heller. I suggested two guys who had worked for Jack for years. Kim knew them and they knew her. It would be more personal than having some agent that she didn't know go out and tell her.

I stayed in the office, away from the bullpen, waiting for Tony to finish debriefing. I really didn't want to talk to anyone. I had other work to do anyway. A day like today left a mountain of paperwork to be sorted through. The time alone also gave me a chance to finish my letter of resignation. I read the letter once and then read it again. Part of me was ready to resign and get away from this place that destroys lives on a daily basis. The other part of me was afraid to give up the only job I had ever known. It was a strange dichotomy of emotions.

The agents that went out to talk to Kim called in to say they were on their way back to CTU. I called Chase to see how Kim was doing and to offer my condolences. I hated doing this. Knowing that Jack was alive but pretending that he was dead to those who loved him was the hardest thing I'd ever done. I spoke with Chase. Kim was contacting other family members. He didn't have a lot of family. His parents were dead but he had one brother in addition to Teri's family that he and had maintained a low key relationship with since her death. This was hard on Chase, too. He looked up to Jack. His own father had died when he was young and it was clear to everyone who knew him that Jack had become a surrogate father over the years. Even before Kim and Chase got married, Chase and Jack had developed a father-son type relationship.

Chase confirmed what Jack had told Tony to expect from Kim. She didn't want to view his body. She had already spoken with the coroner's office. He would be cremated later today. I tried not to sound relieved when Chase told me that, but they couldn't possibly cremate that body fast enough to suit either Tony or me. Kim was hoping to have a memorial service next week. Jack's ashes would be scattered in a more private service for close friends and family in a few days. Chase told me that he hoped Tony and I would attend and I promised him that we would. My other line was ringing so I finished my conversation with Chase in order to take that call.

I was hoping it was Tony calling to say that he was finished debriefing, but it wasn't. It was still a left over issue from earlier in the day. Two more calls followed each a reminder that I was still at work and had to finish the task at hand before I could go home. And at the moment, home was all I could think of. I wanted to go home with Tony. I wanted to pretend that the last two years, including today, had never happened. I wanted that time to evaporate.

Two years ago we were talking about moving to Virginia so Tony could take a great promotion at CIA headquarters in Langley. We were talking about a family and as soon as we moved, we were going to start trying to get pregnant. I hoped Tony still wanted to start a family soon. I know we're just starting over and we should probably work on our relationship before we add a baby to the mix, but I'm almost 35 and Tony's almost 40 and I didn't want to wait much longer.

I was on the phone when Tony knocked on my office door. I waved for him to come in. I was trying to concentrate on the information the caller was providing, but it was almost impossible. All I could think about was how much I loved Tony and what it felt like when I thought I lost him. I also couldn't help but notice how incredibly handsome he was. Those chocolate brown eyes made me melt every time I found them focused on me. I started to develop that warm feeling in my stomach. Okay, it was a little lower than my stomach. Alright, alright, I'll admit it. It was much lower and I shifted in my chair trying to make it stop at least for now. I wanted it to come back later when we were alone. I knew I shouldn't be thinking that at work, but let's be realistic, it had been nearly a year since Tony and I made love and I missed his touch.

I stood up and walked over to the printer. I rifled through the pages until I found my resignation letter and handed it to Tony while I talked. It's funny, like I said before when I first started writing it, I was a little nervous about leaving. I wondered what I would do for a living. Right now it didn't matter. Right now all I wanted to do was leave CTU forever with Tony next to me.

I watched Tony read the letter and expected him to smile. I expected him to be happy, but instead he looked unsure and perplexed. He wanted to know if I was sure about this. How could I be anything but sure? Standing here I couldn't believe how much I loved him. I put my arms around his waist and told him that I loved him and was ready to go home with him, just the two of us, at home, alone. That made him smile and that smile made me melt. Remember the warm feeling I described before? It's back.

_Next chapter: Part II: The Clouds Chapter 1: Tony_


	3. Part II: The Clouds, Chapter 1: Tony

_Hi and thanks again for all of the reviews. Overall it looks like most of you like the format where I provide both perspectives, so I will continue writing the story that way._

_Jade – thanks for your extensive review. I see now where I definitely repeated what happened in the show and it was probably unnecessary. After I finish the story I'll try and go back and edit that and repost the chapter._

PART II: THE CLOUDS

Chapter 1: Tony

Michelle set the letter on the desk and signed her name neatly on the bottom. I watched as she folded it in thirds and slipped it into an envelope. She tucked the envelope into a side pocket of her bag and then hoisted the bag over her shoulder. I smiled. She had always carried a bag to work that had far more in it than she could ever need and the thing weighed a ton. It was like a portable filing cabinet. It was nice to know that some things don't change.

Michelle turned off the light, took my hand and we exited the office. We held hands unabashedly as we descended the stairs and crossed the bullpen. Neither of us cared who saw. It didn't matter any more. Bill was in the conference room talking to some members of the shift that had just arrived. They would work with a skeleton crew today doing "mop up" so they were dividing up the necessary work among them. Bill had just finished handing out assignments when Michelle and I walked in.

"Are you two headed home?" he asked stating the obvious.

"Yeah," Michelle answered. "I'm caught up. I'd like to go home and get a few hours sleep and I'll be in tomorrow."

Bill shook his head. "We can get along without you tomorrow. I think you need a day off, Michelle. I know Jack's death hit you both hard. Take the extra day and get some rest," he paused for a moment. "I appreciate all you did today, both of you."

"Before you're so generous with time off maybe you should read this," Michelle said handing him the envelope.

Bill read the letter and nodded. "I was expecting this. I'm happy for you," he said looking back and forth between us. "You can still have tomorrow off, Michelle," he said with a smile. "Tony," he said as he extended his hand, "good luck and congratulations. You're a lucky man."

He wasn't telling me anything that I didn't know. I thanked him and Michelle and I started toward a rear exit. "I'll walk you to your car," I told her, "then I'll get someone to take me home."

Michelle stopped and looked at me, her brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought we were going home together."

"Sweetheart," I said gently not sure if she was going to understand this, "I may not love Jen, but she's been there for me for a while now and I think I owe it to her to explain that I'm moving out. It's only fair. I also need to pack my things. When I'm finished I'll come right over. In the meantime, you need to go home and get some rest." I kissed her forehead.

Michelle didn't look like she was all that happy about this but she did seem to understand. "Okay, I'll drop you off at your place. You can talk to Jen and pack then you can come home when you're finished."

"Honey, you are not going to drive a Mercedes SUV into my neighborhood. Not if you want to live to tell about it," I smiled at her. "You go home. I'll get someone to drop me off and I'll be over as soon as possible. Come on, let me take you to your car." I led her to her car and opened the door for her. "Be careful driving home. I know how tired you are. I'll see you in a few hours." I leaned over and kissed her. "I love you, Baby," I told her.

"I love you, too," she said in return. "Come home soon. I don't want to be alone today, Tony."

"I know. I'll be there as soon as I can," I promised her.

I watched Michelle drive away and then walked back into CTU. I immediately ran into one of the security guards who had been there when I was the director and asked him to arrange a ride home. He was happy to do it and before long the CTU car pulled up in front of the house I had lived in with Jen for the last several months. I walked sheepishly in the front door knowing that Jen was going to want an accounting of my time and why I hadn't called.

The sad part of it all is that until she tracked me down at CTU, Jen hadn't even crossed my mind. When I told Michelle that I didn't love Jen, I meant it, but I'm not sure that I ever realized before how cold that sounds. What was I doing living with this woman who I really didn't care about? Worse yet, I was sleeping with her. Okay, let's drop the euphemisms; I was having sex with her.

"Oh, you finally decided to come home," Jen said sarcastically. "Are you and your friend, Jack finished saving the world from the bad guys?"

I didn't like the idea that she was maligning Jack and my ire began to rise. I quickly suppressed it. There was no point in getting into an argument over Jack right now. "Look, Jen…" I started but she interrupted me.

"And how is your ex-wife?" she asked in the same sarcastic tone.

"Jen," I said a little more forcefully this time, "I'm sorry I didn't call you. I should have let you know where I was." I sat down on a chair near where she was sitting. I reached for the remote and turned off the television. "We need to talk."

"That doesn't sound good," she said suddenly taking this conversation seriously.

"It's time for me to move out."

"You're moving out?" It was more than a question than a statement. "Why? Did I do something wrong? I'm sorry I called you at CTU. I was worried about you."

"It's not you, Jen. It's me. The truth is I probably shouldn't have ever moved in. We don't have a lot in common, at least not enough to make the basis of a relationship. We both know that."

"Oh, all of the sudden you want more than alcohol and sex." The sarcasm was back.

"Jen, please don't make this harder than it is."

"Don't tell me what to do, Tony. I know that you're a lot smarter than me, but don't talk down to me."

"I wasn't trying to talk down to you…"

Jen interrupted again. "Now I know what this is all about. You spent the last day with your egghead friends with all of their college degrees and letters after their names and you decided that I'm not good enough for you," she shouted. She stood up and started pacing the room as she ranted. "All the sudden a high school drop out who works at a bar isn't what you want to be seen with. Well let me tell you mister master's degree from Stanford, it was me who picked you up when all of those people deserted you. And that includes your prissy little ex-wife. I notice she didn't stick around when you were drunk and unemployed. She dumped your sorry ass as fast as she could. Now you see her again today and I'm dirt under your feet and the princess has been set back up on her throne again."

Jen's rant ended and I sat silently looking at my feet. There really wasn't much I could say to defend myself. Although she put it more crudely than I would have liked, what she said was pretty much true. In Michelle's defense, she didn't exactly dump me. She tried to make our relationship work but I refused. She put up with it for a while but left when it got to be too much for her to deal with.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I honestly never meant to hurt you. I know you were there for me when no one else was and I'll always be grateful for that." I have to admit, I was ashamed of myself. I never set out to hurt Jen, but I had used her and I knew it. I moved in with her when I needed a warm place to sleep and a warm body to cuddle up to. I never loved her and it never occurred to me that she might love me. Never once did I hold her or have sex with her that I didn't wish that it was Michelle that I was with. As much as I tried to tell myself and anyone that would listen that I didn't love Michelle any more, I never stopped loving her, not for a moment.

"You son of a bitch! I knew you were lying when you said you didn't love her any more. I knew it, but I wanted to believe it. I wanted to believe that you could love me. Even though you never said you loved me, I wanted to believe that you did. I saw the pictures of her that you hide in your dresser. I know how beautiful she is. Why would I ever think you would stop loving her and start loving me? I always gave myself credit for being pretty smart. I guess I was wrong." She walked sullenly toward the door. She picked up her purse on the way out.

Jen, wait," I called after her.

She shook her head. "Wait for what? You think I'm going to help you pack? Sorry, don't think so. Leave your key on the counter and be gone before I get back from work. I really don't want you to be here when I get home."

With that she was gone. I can't even begin to describe my feelings. I don't intentionally hurt people. That's not in my nature. So hurting Jen was actually very painful. At the same time, I did what had to be done. There was no way to right this particular wrong so the best thing I could do was pack my things and go and be with Michelle. Thinking about Michelle raised my spirits. Twenty-four hours earlier I would have never dreamed that I would be reunited with her or that she even still cared for me.

I looked around me. If I was going to get to Michelle's house, our house (I sold her my half to her in the divorce settlement.) any time soon, I needed to pack. I had two suitcases stowed in the crawl space below the house. I dug those out and filled them with clothes. I was going to need boxes for the rest of my things. I looked around but couldn't find any and decided that the grocery store down the street was probably a good source of boxes. I got in my beat up old truck and drove to the grocery store and picked up a half dozen good sized boxes. I stopped at Starbucks on the way home for a large caffeine fix so I would stay awake while I was packing. The day had become unpleasantly hot and humid, so I ordered an iced coffee. While I was sitting in the drive through lane waiting for my coffee, I thought I might have heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. I didn't want it to rain anywhere on the west coast today. I wanted Jack to get wherever he was going before any rain set it.

"Where are you, Jack?" I wondered out loud as I drove out of the parking lot and onto the street. Most likely, Jack was far from LA by now. He didn't tell me his plan, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that if he wanted to be dropped off near the railroad yard that he planned to stowaway on a train. Lots of freighters came through on those tracks every day. I'm sure Jack is huddled on one right now and is on his way north. When I gave him the ID and told him it should get him across the border, we both knew that I meant the border to Canada. Jack in Mexico was a little like me in a Scandinavian country. He would stick out like a sore thumb. Not that there weren't plenty of American tourists in Mexico, but Jack didn't look like a tourist. He looked like a drifter and American drifters in Mexico generally aroused the suspicion of both the local residents and the authorities. Canada would provide him much better cover. He would probably end up some place rural. I wondered if he would end up working on a ranch. He had done that during the summers when he was in high school and he still loved horses. Teri's father owned the ranch where Jack worked. That was how they met. He still went out to the ranch occasionally and helped Teri's father and brother.

Back at Jen's place again, I finished packing my clothes and personal items. I moved on to my computer and stereo equipment and all of my software and CDs. Finally I packed books and pictures along with my diplomas and various certificates and commendations that I had received while in the Marines and at CTU. I packed it all in the back of my truck. There's something pathetic about being my age and being able to pack everything you own in two suitcases and six boxes. I had no furniture or household articles. I had left all of that with Michelle. I couldn't bear the thought of looking at it every day. It all reminded me of her. I'm not sure why I left my pots and pans and cutlery with her. It was a little like giving condoms to a man who has had a vasectomy. As much as I love her, I'd be the first to tell you that the woman could burn water. I'm sure I'll have to clean an inch thick layer of dust off of them before I can use them again.

I did a quick check of the house to make sure I hadn't left anything behind. Then I put my keys on the counter as Jen had directed and locked the door behind me. I definitely felt guilty as I walked down the cracked sidewalk and drove from the shabby neighborhood knowing that I was leaving Jen behind, on her own, while I went back to my life in the suburbs with the woman I loved more than life itself.

It was about a half hour ride to Michelle's house. I called her as soon as I got on the road to let her know I was on my way. "Hey, Babe," I said as she answered. "Did I wake you up?"

"No, actually I just got out of the shower," she said.

"Ooh, sorry I missed that," I said with a smile. The thought of Michelle stepping out of the shower was one I had to push out of my mind quickly if I wanted to keep blood flowing to my brain and other vital organs and not to the one it was currently diverting itself toward. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"No, on my way home, I decided to stop and see Kate Warner. I know CTU is going to keep Jack's 'death' off the front page, but it's going to get some coverage and I thought someone should tell Kate personally."

"That was nice of you. I'm sure it was hard to do." Lying wasn't something that came all that naturally to Michelle so telling someone that loved Jack that he was dead and watching them react all the while knowing that he was alive, had to be hard for Michelle. "How did she take it?"

"She was sad and she cried, but she wasn't surprised. I guess it was a little like Kim. People close to Jack always expected him to die in the line of duty so this isn't much of a stretch of the imagination." She paused for a second. "How far away are you?"

"About 20 minutes," I told her. "If you're tired go to bed. Just leave the spare key where we always hid it and I'll let myself in."

"No, I won't be able to sleep until you get here anyway. I'll just lie down of the couch. I'll see you in a little while."

I said goodbye and tried to focus on the road before me. I couldn't believe how excited I was. It was like being a kid in Chicago and having tickets for opening day at Wrigley Field. I was going home to Michelle. I smiled and glanced at the gray sky above me. It might be overcast and about to rain again, but for me, the sun was shining on the whole world.

As promised, I arrived in about 20 minutes. I pulled my truck into the driveway. Michelle saw me coming and opened the garage door for me. I pulled into the empty space next to her car. She stood expectantly in the door that led to the house waiting impatiently for me. She looked so pretty. Her hair was still wet from her shower and she was wearing a thin purple camisole that clung to her frame and silky boxer shorts. Blood started diverting to where it shouldn't be again. I stood next to the car for a moment and got my sex drive under control then followed her into the house. Once in the door I set down the two suitcases and took Michelle in my arms.

As soon as my arms wrapped around her the brave façade she had been wearing all day disintegrated. "Oh, Tony," she gasped as tears started to fall. "I thought I had lived through the worst that could possibly happen. I thought after the nuke and the virus and having you arrested and going to prison that I had seen it all," she sobbed, "but today was worse. Not just the terrorist attacks, but thinking that I lost you and everything that happened to Jack. Now I have to lie to the people who love Jack and tell them that he's dead. And I know that for all intents and purposes that he is dead and he's lost everyone and everything that he loves. And I'm worried about him. I hate this, Tony. I can't wait for us to go someplace else. I hate LA and I hate CTU and I just want to go away with you."

She was crying so hard she couldn't go on any more. She cried great, heaving sobs against my chest. Her whole body was shaking. All I could do was hold her and let her cry. Tears filled my own eyes for many of the same reasons that Michelle was crying. I have to admit at least some of my tears were happy ones; happy that I had Michelle back and that we were going to try again.

We stood together for a long time both of us crying. I was able to get my emotions in check first. Once I did, I picked Michelle up and, cradling her in my arms, I carried her to the bedroom. I set her as carefully as I could on the bed that hadn't been made when she got out of it yesterday morning.

"There you go, Sweetheart," I whispered. "Let me close the blinds." It was so overcast and gray that it hardly seemed necessary to close the blinds, but I knew Michelle couldn't sleep unless the room was dark. Rain was just starting to fall again when I got to the window. I watched it for a few seconds hoping that Jack was far enough from LA by now that the rain wouldn't be a problem for him. I drew the blinds and made my way back to the bed where Michelle's crying had slowed to an occasional sob. I pushed some stray hairs out of her face and tucked them behind her ear. "Okay Sweetheart, you get some sleep," I said as I kissed her forehead. I stood and started out of the room.

"Tony," Michelle said as she sat up and reached for my hand. "Where are you going?"

"I was going to go sleep on the sofa or in the guest room," I told her.

"I thought you were going to sleep with me."

My heart was pounding in my throat so I could barely talk. "I'd love to sleep with you, but I don't want to move too fast. Are you ready for us to share a bed again?"

"I'm ready for us to share our lives, Tony. Sharing a bed is part of that," she looked down shyly, "and it's a part I enjoy."

I suddenly felt embarrassed, as if I had been cheating on her for the last six months. I looked away. "Michelle," I started, "about Jen…"

"No, I don't want to talk about her."

"I feel like I owe you an explanation."

"You already explained. Look, Tony, I left you. That meant you were free to be with anyone you wanted. I know I hurt you and if she made you feel better, I have no right to be angry or jealous."

"You're being awfully understanding," I told her.

She smiled and looked down. "I was upset when I first realized that you were with someone else. Just like you were upset when you thought I had a relationship with Bill. And I'm not going to tell you that I like the idea that you were making love to another woman but I can live with it."

I touched her chin and lifted it so that she was looking directly at me. "I had sex with Jen; I won't try and deny that. But I never once 'made love' to her. I don't know if that makes you feel any better. The truth is that it makes me feel very cheap. I also want you to know that when they checked me out in medical today, I had the doctor test me for...well, you know, diseases I could have picked up from her. Everything was negative, Honey."

"That was really considerate of you, Tony. I appreciate it. Now, come to bed. If I don't get some sleep I think I'm going to pass out," she said smiling.

I smiled back at her as I stripped down to my boxer shorts and slipped into bed. I wrapped her in my arms and reveled in the feeling. Her body was warm and soft just like I remembered it. She smelled wonderful and I hoped that I could just hold her like this for the rest of our lives. We lay together breathing in unison. Exhaustion had finally overtaken both of us. We fell asleep together secure in our love and ready to face our future together.

_Next chapter: Part II, Chapter 2: Michelle_


	4. Part II: The Clouds, Chapter 2: Michelle

_Once again, thanks for all of your reviews. I love reviews, so please, if you read it, take a second to hit your submit review button and say "hi". You can be completely anonymous. It justlets me know whether you think the story is worth continuing or not._

PART II: THE CLOUDS

Chapter 2: Michelle

I took the letter and my bag and started out of the office. Tony smiled when he saw my bag. He always made fun of the oversized bag I carried. I smiled back and grabbed his hand. We had always been so cautious in the past not to let our personal life spill over into our working life but that didn't matter any more. I hoped everyone in CTU saw us holding hands. Based on the mood I was in right now, I might just kiss him in front of everyone, too.

We found Bill in the conference room handing out assignments to the incoming shift. I noticed as his eyes drifted briefly down to our joined hands. For that moment I did feel a little self conscious, almost guilty. I handed him my letter of resignation which, of course, didn't come as a surprise to him. Bill acknowledged that we were going home together and graciously gave me an extra day off. He wished us good luck and told Tony that he was a lucky man. Funny, I was just thinking how lucky I was. Not many people get as many chances as I've gotten.

Look at it from my perspective. If you went back to before our relationship actually began to the day CTU was bombed, I thought I lost Tony in the explosion. I hadn't even told him how I felt about him yet and I was already afraid that I had lost him. Two years ago Tony survived being shot and I survived a potentially fatal virus and kidnapping. At that point I was sure I was the luckiest woman on earth. What more could possibly happen to us? Stupid question, right? You know the answer to that one. Tony gets taken away from me in handcuffs. I thought it would be twenty years before we were together again when, low and behold, President Palmer hands Tony a "get out of jail free" card. There it was again, another chance for us to live happily ever after. Well, we both worked hard at screwing that chance up. Now there I was again today with another chance. This time we were going to make it right and actually leave CTU behind us and the next thing I knew Tony was out in the field and I was watching as that car blow up and assumed that my final chance to be with Tony, to really be happy, had quite literally gone up in flames. I think we've had more chances than a cat has lives. I will not screw this up this time. We're getting away from the danger of CTU and, if I have my way, away from LA all together.

We walked toward a rear exit and all I could imagine was driving home with Tony, maybe getting something to eat and then collapsing into bed. I was too tired to even consider sex. I really just wanted to sleep in his arms and know he was there with me.

When we got to the exit, Tony told me that he would walk me to my car. I think the bottom dropped out of my heart. "I thought we were going home together," I told him.

He explained that he felt an obligation to tell Jen that he was moving out and to explain and apologize to her. I understood, but that doesn't mean that I liked it. Tony went back into CTU as I drove away. I wish he would have let me take him home. I wondered exactly where he was living. I probably could find out easily enough if I really wanted to know, but, truthfully, it was a part of his life that I didn't want to know much about. It was enough to know that he was "living with" another woman. Translate that nice little euphemism to "having sex with" another woman.

I couldn't blame him. I left him; he didn't leave me. I'm the one who filed for divorce and basically said that I didn't want him to be part of my life. He deserved to move on and to have a relationship. None of what happened while we were divorced was any of my business. Still I was curious about Jen. What was she like? Was she pretty? Tony was so good looking that he never had any problem attracting pretty girls. Alright, I admit it. I wondered if she was good in bed. I couldn't help myself. Was she better than me? There didn't seem to be any reason to worry about it. Tony said he didn't love her and I believed him. I knew he still loved me. I'm not sure how I knew it, but I knew it the same way I knew that day would follow night. It was almost instinctive. When we first started dating and I was a little insecure knowing that Tony had obviously made love with other women, I asked him if I was good in bed. He smiled at me and kissed me and said "Sweetheart, regardless of who I've been with, the act itself is largely the same. It's the emotional bond and the chemistry between two people that makes sex really good. I feel a bond with you that I've never felt with anyone else. You excite me more than any woman I've ever known. So if you need an answer to that question,it's 'yes'; you are great in bed."

I thought again about my short conversation with her on the phone. I will never forget answering that phone and the feeling that went through me when I asked who was calling and she said "the woman he's living with." I think someone could have stabbed me in the stomach and it wouldn't have hurt as much.

Looking back now, it was kind of cute watching Tony try and explain. I can't believe that I asked him if he loved her. Like that was any of my business. I was pissed at him for questioning my relationship with Bill and here I was doing the same thing. I was so grateful when he shook his head. It was somehow a relief to know that he didn't love her. Maybe deep down there was some chance, I thought, some chance that he still loved me.

By now he was probably on his way back to Jen's house. I wondered what he was going to say to her and how she was going to react. Tony is so sensitive that I knew breaking up with someone even if he didn't love her was going to be hard. I hoped for his sake that it didn't get too ugly. I just wanted him to pack up his things and get back to our house as soon as possible.

I was driving through the center of LA. Traffic was light. Many people stayed home in light of yesterday's terrorist attacks. Others believed that staying home was un-American. It meant that the attacks had the effect that the terrorists wanted. They wanted us to stay home. They wanted us to run scared. Most people agreed with that theory but stayed home anyway feeling most secure near their homes.

As I made a left turn I glanced at the Warner Enterprises building. Kate's father owned the building and it housed his company's headquarters. The thought hit me suddenly. Kate! Kate Warner! CTU would keep Jack's death as low profile as possible and all details would be classified. I suspected that the only statement released regarding any of the CTU losses over the last day would be to say that the agents died in the line of duty. The press release regarding Jack's death would be no more detailed. It would however garner a larger obituary than most of the other agents. First of all, Jack was the special assistant to the Secretary of Defense, a man with popularity greater than the president. Second, Jack's name had been in the papers several other times for his heroic acts during times of crisis. His wife's murder at the hands of a double agent also made headlines. So I expected that once the news services found out about Jack's death they would consider it newsworthy.

Kate and I had remained friends after her relationship with Jack ended. I didn't want Kate to hear about Jack's death on the news or read it in the newspaper. She was currently dating someone seriously, but I knew she still had a soft spot in her heart for Jack. I pulled over near the Warner Enterprises building and called Kate's office number on my cell phone. I wasn't surprised when she answered. Kate's father would definitely frown on giving in to terrorists.

"Kate, it's Michelle," I said.

"Michelle! How are you? I bet you haven't slept in the last 24 hours. Are you on your way home?"

"Yeah, finally," I told her. "Do you have a minute, Kate? I'm not far away and I was hoping to stop and see you."

"Sure, that would be fine. We're not really doing a lot of business today. Even our overseas transactions will slow down for a few days until people start feeling safe again. If you like we can have lunch."

"We'll talk about it when I get there," I said. I was pretty sure Kate wasn't going to be interested in lunch when I told her what happened.

We ended our conversation and I pulled into the parking garage next to the Warner building. Security was tighter than usual in the building. Kate had already called security to let them know to expect me. I'd been to her office a number of times and knew exactly where it was. She and her father each had penthouse office space. Her view was spectacular. I reached the top floor and turned to the left off the elevator. Kate was standing in the reception area waiting for me. We gave each other a quick hug.

"You look exhausted," Kate told me as if I didn't know it.

"I could stand a few hours of sleep," I said.

"Come into my office and sit down before you fall down," Kate said as she directed us into her spacious office. "So what's going on?"

"I have some good news about Tony and me," I said deciding to start with the good news.

"You and Tony?" she smiled. She had always told me that Tony and I would reconcile but I never believed her.

"We're getting back together. Tony helped out at CTU yesterday and I guess we both realized that we've been acting like fools. So we're going to start over."

"That's wonderful!" Kate exclaimed.

"I resigned from CTU. We decided that there was no way to make the relationship work if I stayed there."

"So where are you going? Have you thought about it?" Kate asked.

"Not really. We haven't had time."

"I've got positions for both of you if you're interested."

"That's nice of you, Kate, but I think we're going to leave LA."

"We've got divisions of Warner Enterprises in ten states, Michelle. I've got so many IT positions available there have to be a couple that meet your needs."

"Thank you, Kate. I appreciate it. Let me talk to Tony. He might be interested. He knows it's going to be hard for him to get a job when he has to explain that he's been unemployed for the last two years and why. It's wonderful of you to offer." I looked away for a second. The next part of this conversation was going to be a lot harder.

"There's something else, isn't there," Kate said. "That isn't all you came here to tell me. Did the terrorist attacks have something to do with the people Marie was working with? Tell me she isn't somehow involved."

Marie Warner had spent the last five years in prison and would spend many more. In fact, she would spend the rest of her life there. Several months ago she had been caught trying to communicate with a terrorist cell via email from the prison. At that point she was moved from the general prison population to "administrative segregation" also known as solitary confinement. All of her communications with individuals outside of the prison were scrutinized and she no longer had email access. I knew Kate was afraid that she had managed to find a way to participate in yesterdays' attacks.

"No," I told her as I put my hand on her shoulder, "this isn't about Marie. It's about Jack."

"Jack? Jack's in Washington," she said, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Jack was in LA with the Secretary of Defense. He rescued Secretary Heller and his daughter yesterday when they were kidnapped. Once the rescue was complete…well you know Jack, he kind of got sucked into the operation. He saved well over a million lives in LA today, Kate." I choked up unable to go on.

"What happened, Michelle? What happened to Jack? Is he okay?" she pleaded for answers all the while knowing that she really didn't want to hear what I was going to tell her.

I shook me head. "No, Kate. He's not. He strayed into the line of fire and was hit. I'm so sorry, Kate. I'm so sorry."

Kate put her head back and closed her eyes. "Oh, Jack," she whispered. "Oh, Jack."

It was painful to watch and more painful to know that I was lying to her.

"I guess a part of me always knew this would happen," Kate said as she wiped tears from her face. "It's kind of fitting. Other than Kim, nothing meant more to him than CTU and this country. It was so clear to him. He had such a clear vision of right and wrong and he never wavered from his conviction. I guess that was what was so incredible about him."

She asked how Kim was doing and we talked for a few minutes longer. Then we hugged and said goodbye. I hated to leave her partially because I didn't want her to be alone but also because I didn't want to be alone either. I drove home wondering when Tony would be home. I thought about calling him but decided that he would call me as soon as he could. For now I would just go home and eat something and take a shower and wait for Tony to come home.

I did just that. I went home and headed straight for the kitchen. I was never too well stocked in the food department and today was no exception. I was so hungry that it didn't really matter to me what I ate. The first thing I saw in the refrigerator was a carton of yogurt. I ate that followed by an apple and some grapes and finally some toast with peanut butter and jelly on it. I washed it all down with some milk and then dragged myself back to my bedroom. A few minutes later I was in the shower. I stood under the shower head and let the water rush over me. I stood there a long time before I actually made any attempt to wash. But finally, when my fingers started looking all pruney, I decided I better get washed and out of the shower before my entire body turned all wrinkly. I stepped out and dried off and walked naked into my bedroom. I needed something comfortable to sleep in because I intended to sleep for a long time once Tony got here. But I also wanted something that Tony would find attractive.

I finally picked out a camisole and matching boxer shorts. It was comfortable without being frumpy and alluring without making me look like a two-bit whore. I looked at my bed, which I hadn't bothered to make when I got out of it yesterday, and wanted nothing more than to crawl in it and sleep into next Wednesday. But I knew from experience that if I tried to sleep after all that had happened I would just have miserable nightmares. I needed Tony. I needed to know that he was beside me and I was safe and despite all of the terrible things that happened, we were together. I knew I couldn't sleep until he was with me.

As if in answer to a prayer my phone rang. It was Tony. I was so happy to hear his voice. He would be here soon, he said. He was packed up and on his way. I told him I had just gotten out of the shower and he made some thinly veiled sexual comment like "I'm sorry I missed that." I acted appalled since that seemed appropriate but in point of fact, I was sorry he missed it, too and that same warm feeling in my stomach, okay, lower than my stomach, was back. This time I didn't try and stop it.

We discussed my visit with Kate Warner and then we were both silent for a few seconds. I think we were both trying to get through out heads all that had happened in the last day. We were together again but we had essentially lost a dear, dear friend to the most unjust of circumstances. If he had died capturing Marwan I think that would have been easier for Tony and me to accept. That he had lost his identity over an incident that was sanctioned by the government was an injustice I had difficulty accepting. I knew Tony felt the same way.

We said our goodbyes and I laid down on the sofa to wait for Tony. The problem was that I couldn't lay still. I just wanted him to be here. I just wanted him to hold me. I was exhausted and fading fast. On top of it, the exhaustion was magnifying my emotions. I was afraid that when I saw Tony I would dissolve into tears and I didn't want that. I didn't want his homecoming to be marred by my inability to control my emotions. I didn't want him to remember that he came home only to find me an unstable, emotional wreck. Not that I had never cried in front of him before. For heaven's sake, the first time we kissed in the hallway in CTU I was crying like a baby and telling him I couldn't take any more. The man knew full well what my breaking point was. I had cried when he was arrested and again at his sentencing hearing. But for some reason I just didn't want to cry today and I knew I wasn't going to be able to avoid it.

I saw Tony's beat up old Jeep SUV pull into the driveway. When we divorced he owned that old Jeep that he liked to tool around in but he also had a beautiful '62 Corvette convertible. I had the funny feeling that the Corvette was sold to finance his drinking habit and to pay living expenses in light of the fact that he hadn't had steady employment since he came home from prison. The thought that he had sold that car, which he had spent years restoring, broke my heart. He had put far more love than money into it and that was saying something since over the years he had probably put $10,000 into restoring it. Not a bad investment since I'm sure he was able to sell it for well over $50,000.

I leaned out into the garage and pushed the button for the automatic garage door. I felt the excitement of anticipation building as I watched him stop and wait for the door and then advance slowly into the stall. He said nothing as he got out of the car; he didn't need to. I could see it in his eyes. He was home. He got two bags out of the back and carried them into the house. I backed up out of the doorway to let him in. He set the bags down and took me into his arms. That was the end of any self control that I was still exercising. I lost it. I tried to talk but I think it was probably incomprehensible babble between my sobs.

Tony held me patiently. He never tried to hush me or make me stop. He just let me cry. I think he cried, too. Eventually he lifted me into his arms. As tired as I knew he was I can't believe that he had the strength to carry me. And he did it with such ease! I was so wiped out that I really didn't even help him be holding on to his neck. He was pretty much carrying a 120 pound rag doll.

He laid me down on the bed and closed the blinds. I generally don't like to be babied, but at the moment it felt good. It felt good not to have to be in charge or give orders or to have lives hanging in the balance. I was happy to relinquish control to Tony. He brushed hair out of my face and told me to go to sleep. I watched as he started to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" I asked him suddenly terrified that he was leaving me alone.

He said that he was going to sleep on the sofa or in the guest room. Very noble of him but not what I wanted and I was pretty sure that it wasn't really what he wanted. So I invited him to stay. I could tell by the look on his face that it was what he wanted, but he had something else on his mind.

"Michelle," he started, "about Jen…"

I didn't want to hear about Jen and I told him so. It was bad enough that I knew about her, I sure didn't want to talk about her. I wanted to forget her and I certainly wanted Tony to forget her forever. He obviously felt that he owed me an explanation but I didn't really want one.

In the end I lost. He needed to get this off of his chest more than I needed to avoid the subject so I let him explain. I think he felt better when he finished and, in truth, so did I. I finally told him that it was time to go to sleep. I know he was trying to maintain some control, but I could see a smile slowly begin twitching in the corners of his mouth until he finally relaxed and allowed himself to smile at me. Without another word, he undressed to his boxer shorts and climbed into bed with me.

I think I fell asleep within seconds, but the few seconds I remember prior to succumbing to sleep were perfect. The clouds had given way to rain and I could hear it tapping out a rhythm against the windows. It was as if the rain had been sent to cleanse us, to cleanse our wounds and our souls. I snuggled against Tony and he responded by kissing my forehead. I could feel myself drifting off to sleep.

_Next chapter: PART III: The Storm, Chapter 1: Tony_


	5. Part III: The Storm, Chapter 1: Tony

_Thanks again for the reviews and for sticking with me. I'm having fun with this story. There is something liberating about writing in first person. It really allows you to get into the skin of the person whose point of view you are writing. So writing for two different POVs is really fun. _

_For those of you waiting for the love scene, here it is. If you are put off by graphic love scenes, you probably want to skip this chapter (and the next one, too, since that will be the same scene from Michelle's POV). The love scene is graphic but, as with the love scenes in all of my stories, I think it is in good taste. If not, let me know about it._

PART III: THE STORM

Chapter 1: Tony

I awoke around 2 o'clock in the morning to a bright flash of lightening followed quickly by a clap of thunder. I looked over at Michelle. She was still sleeping. Michelle's usually a light sleeper, so she must have been completely wiped out to sleep through this storm. The next flash of lightening was brighter than the last. Even with the blinds closed it lit up the room. The thunder was right on its heels telling me that the storm was very close. The thunder was so loud that it shook the house. For a second I wondered if we were having an earthquake, but it stopped too quickly. The second clap of thunder woke Michelle with a start.

She didn't say a word but moved toward me. I instinctively took her in my arms as if she needed protection and I could protect her from the awesome force of lightening. We were lying on our sides facing each other. The problem with that is it effectively traps one arm under your body thus rendering it useless. I slid my free arm up along Michelle's back and down again. She let out a soft breathy sound, almost a contented mew that a cat might make and in return she ran her hand up and down along the bare skin of my back. That hardly seemed fair. She got to touch bare skin while the skin I was touching was covered by her silky camisole. I slid my hand down her back again and this time as I ran it up her back, I slipped it under her camisole so I, too, could feel her skin against mine. The contented mew returned but this time a little louder. I felt her hand slide up my back again and as it moved back down, her fingers curled and she lightly raked her nails down my back. The sensation was almost more than I could bear. My body virtually crackled with electricity. I wondered if it was possible that I had been struck by lightening because I wouldn't imagine a bigger jolt going through me even if I had been.

Michelle put her leg up on top of mine and slowly slid it up my thigh. When she reached my hip she wrapped her leg around me and pulled my lower body to hers. I was getting hard and was now pressed against her stomach. I hoped she was even half as excited as I was. I exhaled loudly and ran my hand down her back again. On the way, I let my fingers trace her ribs around to the front. My hand stroked her soft, flat stomach and slowly moved up. I cupped her breast in my hand and both of us groaned quietly. She turned her face up to mine and we kissed. It was a hard, intense kiss that I was afraid would leave her lips bruised and sore, but at the same time, I couldn't help myself. I couldn't get enough of her. I could feel Michelle's breath quicken and I knew that she was excited. She slipped her hand down between us and without warning she lifted the waistband of my boxer shorts and put her hand inside. She took me in her hand and stroked me roughly. I was completely incapacitated. I rolled onto my back with my mouth gaping open unable to think or even to breathe. I wanted to moan loudly or shout her name or something but I couldn't and even if I could, I'm not sure that I would have. Neither of us had spoken a word and our silence as the storm raged outside of the window was incredibly erotic.

Michelle continued to stroke me. Her touch was unbelievable. She still knew exactly what I liked and how to push my most sensitive buttons. I was amazed at how different it felt to "make love" with Michelle than it did to "have sex" with Jen. The physical act was the same. Jen had held me in her hand and stroked me the same way Michelle was and I never felt the way I did right now. It was something about Michelle, something about the bond between us that made the entire act so perfect.

I didn't think I could hold out much longer, I was tensing up, about to come when she must have sensed it and pulled away. I was so stunned that I'm surprised I didn't lose my erection. I watched her as the lightening flashed around us. She got up into a kneeling position on the bed and sat still, staring at me for a moment. Then she reached up and pulled her hair from the ponytail holder that was cinching it away from her face. She shook her head and her hair fell about her shoulders. Next she crossed her arms in front of her body and took hold of the hem of the camisole. In one smooth, fluid motion, as she was silhouetted by flashes of lightening, she pulled the camisole over her head and tossed it off the side of the bed. The lightening had created a weird strobe effect as if we were at some 70s style discotheque and the lights were no longer flashing in time with the music.

I grabbed her and tried to pull her down on top of me but she resisted. Instead, she pulled me into a sitting position. She sat on my lap and wrapped her legs around me. We started kissing hungrily again. We were both naked from the waist up and our hands moved wildly about each other's body.

I finally was able to get hold of Michelle's shoulders and I pushed her insistently to the bed without breaking the kiss. I reached for the boxer shorts she was wearing while she reached for mine. We struggled to get them off. Once freed of clothing, I moved my mouth down her body. I had tasted her lips and her skin but there was more of her that I wanted to taste. She knew what I wanted and she must have wanted it, too, because she raised her pelvis and rotated it against me.

The second my mouth touched her, her back arched and she tossed her head from side to side. Her mouth was open and she was gasping for breath. I was amazed at how natural it felt to have oral sex with Michelle. We had first done it the very first time we ever made love. It was just an extension of kissing. I kissed her lips and her face and down her neck to her beasts and stomach and just naturally ended up between her legs. In some ways, I think the sensation was as exciting for me as it was for her. That same act was not natural with Jen. In fact, I had only done it once and had never felt the need or desire to do it again. It wasn't natural with her. She obviously didn't care, because she didn't encourage me to do it again. By the same token, she never used her mouth on me. And the truth is, I didn't really care. It wasn't something I really wanted her to do, but when Michelle did it, it was intensely intimate and the climax was frantic, almost draining.

Michelle was writhing beneath me and I could feel her tense up as I had done earlier. She was about to climax. I started to increase the rhythm but I felt her hands on my face. She was pulling me away. I slid up her body kissing whatever skin I touched as I climbed up her. I reached her lips and found her waiting for my kiss. Arms wrapped tightly around each other, I rolled onto my back and pulled Michelle on top of me. She always had a better orgasm if she was on top and I wanted her to enjoy this as much as possible. I certainly was going to enjoy it regardless of our position.

Michelle was as ready as I was. She straddled me and pushed me inside of her so quickly and with so much force that we both gasped. For a second I was afraid that she might be in pain but after a couple of seconds of being totally still, she picked up a fast, grinding rhythm. Just a few seconds later neither of us could take any more. We both climaxed with loud pants and gasps. It seemed like a long time before either of us lay still. Michelle collapsed panting against my chest. I put my arms around her. Her body was damp with sweat as was mine. We lay like that for a long time. We both remained silent while we listened to the storm. It finally passed from above us and moved on to wake some other unsuspecting souls. The rumble of the thunder became more and more distant and the lightening flashes became dimmer and dimmer until I could no longer see or hear either. All I could hear now was Michelle's slow, quiet breathing. I turned carefully onto my side and eased Michelle off of me. She relaxed on the bed, her head on the pillow with mine and we both fell off to sleep.

The next time I woke the sun was doing its best to peek around the blinds and into the room. I turned to look at the alarm clock and saw that there was no digital read out. The storm must have knocked out the electricity. At the same moment I realized that it was stiflingly hot and humid. With the electricity out we had no air conditioning. The hot, sticky air outside was now inside as well.

I looked over at Michelle who was still asleep. We had managed to kick every stitch of bedclothes onto the floor, so we were both completely naked and uncovered. Michelle was stretched out on her back. How could she sleep that way? If I tried to sleep flat on my back I would snore so loud that I'd wake people on the next block. But there she lay, peaceful as could be. Her hair was going in every possible direction. Her face, which was flushed pink from the heat, was turned toward me. She had one arm was resting on her stomach, while the other was extended on the bed and rested against my chest.

I propped myself up on one elbow so I could watch her sleep. She was so beautiful. I had an overwhelming urge to touch her, to brush her hair out of her face, but I decided not to. I didn't want to disturb her. I wanted her to rest and to forget all that had happened at CTU and dream happily of the incredible love we'd made just a few hours ago.

She must have sensed that I was staring at her because she rolled over onto her side as if she were self conscious and wanted to cover herself. As she did, her hand came in contact with my body. She yawned and stretched a bit and then let that hand settle on my waist like it was no surprise to find my body next to hers in bed. I smiled and could no longer resist the urge to touch her. I pushed some thick locks behind her ear and then planted a soft kiss on her cheek. She reached up, without opening her eyes, and brushed her hand along the spot I had kissed like she was flicking away an irritating insect. I kissed her again and got the same response. I tried it one more time and she began to stir.

"Mmmm," she moaned quietly as she exhaled. She moved closer to me and I encased her in my arms. "Good morning." She was smiling.

"Good morning," I whispered back.

"Last night was incredible," she said. She nuzzled against my neck. "Ooh, you're hot."

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "So are you."

Michelle started to laugh. "Not that kind of hot!" she said with a giggle. "Although come to think about it, you're that kind of hot, too. I mean your body is warm."

"So much for my ego!" I said feigning anger. "Of course I'm warm, you are too. The storm knocked out the electricity and we don't have any air conditioning."

"No wonder it's so hot in here. I just thought I was too warm because I'm not used to having someone in bed with me." Michelle rolled over and leaned off the edge of the bed scanning the floor for the clothes she so hastily discarded during the night. She found the camisole, picked it up and pulled it over her head.

"If I'm making you too warm, I could just get out of bed, you know," I told her. I spotted her boxer shorts on my side of the bed and snatched them off of the floor. "Looking for these?" I asked as I held them up.

"Thank you," she said as she reached for them.

I held them just out of her reach. "It's going to cost you," I teased her.

Without missing a beat, Michelle climbed on my lap. "Oh, Baby," she cooed, "it's too hot to play games." She kissed me and I stupidly let my guard down. I lowered the arm holding her shorts and as I did she grabbed them like a lizard catching a fly on it's tongue. "You're slowing down, Honey! I can't believe you fell for that. It was like taking candy from a baby," she said triumphantly.

"It's the heat," I said as I watched her step into the shorts and then return to bed, "it's effecting my brain." I got up and put on my own boxer shorts. "Do you have any kind of juice?"

"Yeah, there's grapefruit juice in the fridge," she said. "Can you get some for me, too?"

"Got it," I said as I walked toward the kitchen.

"Tony, put ice in mine, please," she called after me.

"Yes, dear," I answered sarcastically.

I couldn't help but smile. The playful woman who was stretched out across the bed was my Michelle. I don't know who that dour-faced, humorless woman that walked into CTU in a brown suit was, but she was gone now. She was gone and she had been replaced by the Michelle I had fallen in love with. I really hadn't seen that Michelle since I was arrested. After that, she became quiet and sullen. When she visited me she tried to smile and have cheery conversations with me, but it was forced and uncomfortable. Not that it mattered; I wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs while I was in prison. My attitude after I was pardoned and came home didn't give her much reason to be playful. She was happy that I was home, but the playfulness and humorous banter between us was gone. I was happy that it had resurfaced again after all of this time.

I filled two tall glasses with ice and poured the juice. The ice crackled as the juice flowed over it.

"Are you hungry?" I called up the stairs.

"Only it you're making something cold," she answered.

"How does cereal and milk sound?"

"That's fine." I was glad she agreed to that because knowing Michelle she didn't have much else to eat in the house.

I found a tray and put two bowls of cereal, spoons, two glasses of milk and some strawberries on it along with the grapefruit juice. As I made my way back upstairs, I couldn't help but notice that Michelle hadn't changed much in the house since I left. Framed pictures of the two of us were scattered about on tables and bookshelves. A vase that we bought on our honeymoon was filled with fresh flowers and sat on a table near the entrance. It was almost as if I had never left.

I entered the bedroom and set the tray of food down on the end of the bed. We sat propped up on pillows eating our breakfast and trying to stay cool.

"I know I said this once already," Michelle began, "but last night was incredible. It was like the first time all over again."

I leaned over between spoonfuls of cereal and kissed her forehead. "In a way it was the first time. We're starting over, not picking up where we left off. I want to do it right this time, Michelle. I promise you I won't screw up the way I did last time."

"Tony, what happened wasn't your fault. Prison changed you and I wasn't willing to accept that. I blamed you for a long time, and then I blamed me. Eventually I realized that there was plenty of blame for both of us." She paused for a moment. "Yesterday, when you asked me to leave CTU and start over with you, at first I was scared. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was the right thing to do. Being apart was so painful for both of us. We both had lost so much. I knew that if we tried it again that we could make it work. I know we're going to make it work this time, Tony."

"You're right," I nodded in agreement. "It means more to us than it did before. I never want to lose you again, Michelle. I love you so much."

"I love you, too," she said smiling. "Now all we have to do is figure out where we're going and what we're going to do for a living now that we're both unemployed."

"Well, if you want to live on the east coast, Secretary Heller offered me Jack's position," I told her.

"He did? When was that? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Yeah, he offered me the position right before we left CTU yesterday and that didn't seem like a good time to tell you."

"Did you accept his offer?" she asked.

"No, not without discussing it with you, Sweetheart. I would never make a decision that big without discussing it with you. I told him I would discuss it with you and get back to him. He gave me a month. I thought that was fair."

"Do you want the job?" she asked.

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "He took me by surprise. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I really have to see what other jobs are out there right now. It also depends on how you feel about it and where you can get a job."

"Tony, I told you two years ago that I would go anywhere with you. I still feel that way. I can pretty much get a job with any company that has openings in its IT department. And by the way, Kate Warner offered us both jobs, too."

"She did? What did you tell her?" I asked.

"I told her we'd talk about it."

"If you could choose any place, where would you want to live?" I asked her.

"Any place that's not LA," she said without hesitation. Then she thought for a moment. "I guess I'd like to live some place where the seasons change. I'd like some snow in the winter and changing leaves in the fall. The truth is, Tony, that I don't care where I am as long as I'm with you."

"So I guess we just start looking for jobs and go where they take us."

"That sounds good to me," she said smiling. "Do we have to start looking today?"

"I guess we can wait until tomorrow to start. Why? Do you have something special planned?"

"Yeah, I want to go get a marriage license," she said with an almost shy smile. "I let you go once; I'm not giving you another chance to get away."

I pulled Michelle into my arms and kissed her. When we first started dating five years ago, I didn't think I could possibly be any happier. Time and experiences have colored my view and now I realize that I was wrong. I'm much happier today, right now at this time, than I was then. I lost everything important to me and fell into a depression so deep that it could have swallowed the Grand Canyon. Now, having climbed from the depths of despair to the top of the mountain, I could see a happiness far greater than I had ever known before. It was rooted in love and, with a little cultivation on each of our parts, it would bloom and grow and take us from this world and into the next.

_Next chapter: Part III: The Storm, Chapter 2: Michelle_


	6. Part III: The Storm, Chapter 2: Michelle

_As always, thanks for the reviews. Here's Michelle's POV of the storm. This was probably the hardest chapter to write since Michelle and Tony were together for the entire chapter. It was had to write Michelle's part without just repeating Tony's. I'm not sure if I was successful or not. Let me know when you review!_

_Just a couple of personals to reviewers:_

_Amy – thanks for reading Carnival Town and reviewing. It's nice to have someone read my old stuff and review it. That is one of my favorite stories and people tend not to read it because it is about Jack and Kate rather than Tony and Michelle. So thanks for reading it and reviewing._

_Jade II – Thanks for the constructive reviews. They really help me. I love it when people just say nice things about my work, but you say nice things AND make me think about what I wrote and I appreciate it!_

_AlmeidaFluff – I really need to bow to the Goddess of Fluff! lol You write the best fluff out there, so when you like my stuff I'm really flattered. I do, however, take exception with your view that prison shouldn't have changed Tony. I don't care that he was only there a few months of a possible 20 years, I think Tony is a man of principals who doesn't believe that he did anything wrong by saving his wife. The fact that the government he so faithfully served has turned on him is a slap in the face that he can't forgive nor can he forget. It's not really prison that has made him bitter (although no one, including Michelle understands that) it is what the government has done to him. What I am more disturbed by in Season 4 is that Michelle has so quickly dumped him and I try and explain why she did that in this chapter._

PART III: THE STORM

Chapter 2: Michelle

I awoke to a bright flash of lightening, a loud rumble of thunder and a warm body next to mine. Of the three, it was the warm body that surprised me the most. It felt so good to have Tony so close. I wanted to be closer so I snuggled against him and he tightened his embrace. I nuzzled his chest and inhaled deeply. He smelled so good. I can't explain it. It isn't the smell of soap or cologne; it's just the way he smells. As if his skin exudes its own scent. I can't describe it either. It isn't a sweet smell or a musky smell. It's just Tony. I noticed it the first time we made love. I've never noticed it on any other man. Not that I've exactly been with an army of other men, but I wasn't a virgin when Tony and I met either. I lay still and quiet enjoying having Tony's body so near, making me forget the hellacious two years that had just past and more recently, the last awful day.

As we lay together I listened to the storm. There was something erotic about lying in Tony's arms as a storm absolutely raged around us. This probably sounds bizarre, but I found the whole atmosphere incredibly exciting. That warm feeling was back again and it was growing.

Tony ran his hand down my back and up again. Involuntarily I let out a quiet sound and did the same to him. He responded by running his hand again down my back but this time he reached under my shirt and let his had move along my bare skin. Wow! Having his hand on my skin was electrifying. I wanted him to touch more skin, all of my skin, every inch of me. I wanted him to kiss me and caress me like we had in the past. I wanted to forget that there was a world outside where terrorists wanted to kill innocent people to make God-knows-what point. I wanted the whole world to be reduced to our bed and our bodies as we reunited.

I made that same noise I had made the first time, only this time it was louder. Then I ran my hand up Tony's back and clawed him lightly with my fingernails as I moved my hand down to the small of his back. He didn't say a word but his whole body shuddered and I knew he was as excited as I was. We were lying on our sides. I lifted my top leg and rested it on his, then slowly, very slowly, I slid it up his thigh until it reached his hip. There I extended my leg and wrapped it around his body. I used it to pull his pelvis against mine. Now I knew for sure that he was excited. Based on how he was now pressing against my stomach, he was very excited. He ran his hand down my back and then followed my ribs around to the front where he first caressed my stomach briefly before reaching up to take one of my breasts in his hand and massage it. This time I groaned out loud and so did Tony.

I turned my face to his and we kissed a hard, bruising kiss. I pulled away barely able to get my breath. I couldn't stand it a minute longer. I reached down between us and put my hand inside his boxer shorts. I took him in my hand and began stroking him. He loved it! He rolled onto his back. During lightening flashes I could see his face. His eyes were closed and his mouth gaped open as if he wanted to cry out but couldn't. He began to tense up; he was about to climax. I wasn't ready for that yet. I wanted us to climax together, so I pulled away. I guess I did it a little suddenly and I could tell by the look on his face that he was stunned by my sudden move away from him. I hoped I hadn't ruined the moment and, just in case I had, I decided that it was time to turn on the sex goddess act and get the moment back.

I drew up onto my knees in what I knew was a very sexy pose. I let my hair down from the ponytail it was in and I shook it seductively around my shoulders. The lightening flashes were coming in quick succession and the thunder was almost constant. I could see Tony's face and he was watching me with rapt attention. I stripped off my camisole and threw it to the floor. Tony reached for me and tried to pull me down on top of him. He's strong, but I managed to resist and force him to move into a sitting position on the bed. Once he was sitting, I straddled his lap and wrapped my legs around him. We kissed passionately. His tongue was deep in my mouth and I sucked it. Our hands were everywhere, touching, grabbing wildly. One second his hands were on my back and the next they were in my hair, then one reached around to gently clasp a breast. Mine were at once on his face and gripping the hair on his chest, then they moved to his back and up onto his neck and through his hair. We gasped for breath between kisses.

Then thunder and lightening continued. At times the thunder was so loud that the house vibrated around us. I pulled back to get my breath and Tony took the opportunity to push me down onto the bed. He was immediately on top of me. We kissed and struggled to remove our boxer shorts, the only clothing that stood in the way of what had quite obviously become the only thing either of us could even think about at the moment. It's amazing how irrational sex can make you. Instead of rolling all over the bed and tugging at the shorts, we could have easily stopped for a half a second pulled off the shorts and been done with it. Maybe rolling around and tugging was part of the fun.

Finally done with the shorts, Tony moved his mouth from mine and started kissing my neck. He went from my neck down to my chest and started making his way down my body. He eventually kissed all the way down to the warm spot I mentioned earlier. The only difference is that the warm spot was now hot beyond belief and getting hotter with every touch of his tongue. Now it was my turn to lay back with my eyes closed and my mouth opened. I wanted to say his name to encourage him to continue or just to let him know how good it all felt but I was afraid to speak, afraid to break the spell. Even with my eyes closed I could see the flashes of lightening. The whole atmosphere was so surreal.

Now it was me who was about to climax. I swear someone plugged me into an electrical outlet and put current through my body. I tensed up, ready for a total release. In that same instant, I remembered that I wanted us to climax together tonight. Normally that didn't matter to me, but tonight it did.

I reached down and caressed Tony's face as I pulled him away from me. He seemed surprised at first. He knew how close I was and had really increased the intensity in the last few seconds. As he kissed his way back up my body, I knew he understood what I wanted. He turned us over so that I could be on top. Without a moment's hesitation, I straddled him and pushed myself down on top of him a little more forcefully than I intended. I think it surprised both of us. We both gasped and for a second neither of us moved. Boy, was I going to be sore in the morning! Once I caught my breath I was able to initiate a rhythm. It was fast and intense and only lasted seconds before we were both groaning. I think every muscle in my body was in spasm. It took forever for the tiny electrical charges to stop making every nerve ending tingle and I could relax. We finally lay still. My body on top of his, still united, still one. The storm was moving away and our breathing was returning to normal. The rain that was once pounding the roof and pelting the windows was now a gentle shower falling lightly.

I was exhausted. I felt as though every muscle had been exercised to its maximum capability. Now each muscle was rewarded for its efforts. They rested against Tony who I knew was equally exhausted. His arms rested limply on my back without the energy to rub or caress me the way he usually did after we made love. And we remained silent. The fact that neither of us had spoken the entire time was unusual. Yes, we had groaned at times but those were largely involuntary, they came from deep in our throats without our being able to control them. But neither of us spoke. We normally would at least whisper each other's name or breathlessly tell each other how good a particular touch felt or beg the other not to stop whatever act we were currently engaged in. Not tonight. Tonight we were silent and it was strangely exciting. I lay still, listening to Tony breathe and reveled in our silence.

A few hours earlier, before we went to bed, Tony and I discussed his physical relationship with Jen. I accepted that it had occurred and knew that there was nothing I could do to change that, but I didn't quite buy his line that he only "had sex" with her and didn't "make love" to her. Tony is passionate and sensitive. I couldn't imagine him just "having sex" with any woman. He would have to have a deeper commitment. Oh yes, maybe when he was in college or as a young Marine officer who was impressed with his own importance he might have had sex with some girl just for the thrill of it. But once he grew out of that phase of life, he had only had a few relationships and he took all of them very seriously. That was why Nina hurt him so badly. He loved her or he wouldn't have been physically involved with her. That was why I so doubted him when he told me that he didn't love Jen and he didn't "make love" to her. He may love me more that he loved her, but I had to believe he loved her to some degree.

After the last half hour, I had begun to doubt my own theory. The man who had just made love to me was starved for love. Maybe not starved for sex, but starved for love. I could tell it in his every reaction to my touch. I wasn't doing anything unusual when I touched him but his reactions were extreme. Surely Jen touched him in much the same way, but yet he reacted as if he hadn't been touched in a very long time. Maybe what he said was true. Jen filled a physical need for him, but not an emotional one.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep. Sleep hadn't felt this good since Tony went to prison. Even when he came home, he was so distant and locked up within himself that sleeping next to him wasn't the same as it had been. He could envelope me in his arms and there was still a wall between us. I'm not sure what caused it, but that wall had come crashing down today. Maybe we had both hit bottom. Maybe the terrorist attacks made us both see the bigger picture. I don't know what it was, but I'm so grateful that it happened. I let myself go. I let sleep overtake me. I could feel Tony carefully turning onto his side and easing me onto the bed. My head rested on the pillow just centimeters from his. I wanted to sleep like this every night for the rest of my life.

I'm not quite sure how long I slept, but the next time I woke up, the sun was shining in the window. There was no sign of the rain that ravaged the area last night. I was lying on my side with my arm around Tony and I was absolutely sweating like a pig. Well, this is attractive, I thought. As hot as I was next to him, I really didn't want to move away from him. In fact, I moved closer to him. I was amazed that another body in bed could possibly make me this warm but I guess I had forgotten what it was like.

We whispered our good mornings and my sleep numbed mind connected with my mouth and said something stupid to him like "You're hot." I meant heat hot, but of course, being a man, he thought "hot" in a sexual connotation and thanked me. I stepped right into that one! I was awake now and ready for some verbal sparring. Tony had an amazingly quick wit and I needed to be fully awake to keep up with him. He explained that the electricity was out. I was happy to learn that lack of air conditioning was why I was so hot and it had little to do with his presence in the bed.

I leaned off the bed in search of my clothes. I easily came up with my camisole, but couldn't find my shorts. Unlucky for me they fell on Tony's side of the bed and he was currently holding them hostage. I was pretty sure he would be a sucker for my whining this morning so I simply whined that it was too hot to play games. That worked. He fell for it and gave me the shorts. Can I read this man like a book or what!

The next thing I knew he was downstairs getting us some breakfast. God! This was like the good old days when we were first married. I felt like aliens had landed and taken away the Tony that came home to me from prison and replaced him with the real Tony that I loved with all my heart. I couldn't have been happier to have him home. At some point we are going to have to discuss what happened while Tony was in prison. We had both avoided the subject when he first got home.

It was strange. When he was first arrested he was upbeat despite the fact that he clearly was facing prison time. Once he was transferred to a federal facility things changed. I don't know what happened. It seemed like the first time I visited him there he was a different person. He had become quiet and sad. I wondered if he had been assaulted. Obviously being a "cop" in prison is a bad thing and other prisoners were always interested in taking down a cop. He didn't have any visible scars of a fight and I knew how strong Tony was, if someone tried to assault him, he wouldn't have gone down without a fight. He was well schooled in martial arts and could easily take care of himself against more than one person. No, if he had been assaulted, he would have had cuts and bruises and someone would have landed in the hospital ward. So, if he hadn't been assaulted, what happened? I came to the conclusion that facing 30 years in a federal penitentiary for doing something he didn't see as wrong simply broke his spirit.

The more I tried to talk to him, the more he shut me out. He even went so far as to ask me not to come and visit. He said he didn't like for me to see him this way, that it hurt too much to have me visit and then leave to go back to the real world. I continued to visit every week until CTU posted me in Seattle for a few months. It was while I was in Seattle that Jack started working on President Palmer to get a pardon for Tony. I wrote to Tony regularly and let him know what Jack was doing. His return letters seemed to have a little hope in them. I thought that getting the pardon would bring him back to life.

Jack called me at CTU Seattle to tell me that Palmer had signed the pardon. I was so excited. I took the next flight back to LA and made arrangements to bring Tony home. I would have to go back to Seattle to finish up my assignment there, but that would only take another week or two. In the meantime Tony could get settled back in at our house and start looking for a job.

I'll never forget picking him up from the prison. I was so happy and he didn't seem to care at all. It didn't seem to matter to him that he was going home. He talked on the way home about being "branded a criminal" and feeling like he had been "tainted." He was afraid that whenever he walked down the street people would stare at him and whisper that he was "the traitor that Palmer pardoned." I tried to allay his fears but it didn't work. When I left for Seattle a few days later, I was worried about him. I asked friends to check on him and keep him company. That only made things worse. Tony perceived that as my not believing he could take care of himself any more and not trusting him. That resulted in a terrible fight when I got home. Although he never laid a hand on me, I found myself actually afraid of him.

I hoped now that I was home and posted back in LA again that we would settle into a routine. It didn't happen. He resented my going to work every day but didn't want to look for a job. "What's the use," he would say. "Who's going to hire an ex-con."

He finally had a couple of job interviews neither of which went very well. After each one I noticed that he drank heavily. That was the end of the job interviews and the beginning of his drinking. I tried to get him into therapy, but he refused. Our days seemed to become a cycle of me going to work while Tony was still asleep and coming home to a man who had done nothing all day. That would inevitably be followed by an argument which led to me crying and him drinking. I would cry myself to sleep and he would pass out. I would get up in the morning and the cycle would start again. After a few months, I left. I'll admit, I didn't try very hard. Somehow after all that the previous year had dealt me, I didn't have the strength to try anymore. It was easier to leave. I filed for divorce and he didn't contest it. That was it, the end of a perfect three year relationship. Or so I thought.

This morning I listened while Tony rattled around in the kitchen for a while. As usual my kitchen was full of no food and plenty of dishes in need of washing. For someone who never cooks, I always seem to have an over abundance of dishes to wash. He eventually came upstairs with breakfast and we sat propped against the pillows eating and discussing our future. He told me about Secretary Heller's job offer and I told him about Kate's. I had to admit, the offer from Secretary Heller was intriguing. I had been posted in Washington for a summer several years ago during the anthrax attacks. I didn't have much time to see the area, but I liked it and I remember thinking that I could easily live there. If I'm not mistaken, Warner Enterprises has a facility near Baltimore. Maybe Tony could take Jack's old position and I could work at Warner.

If Tony took the job with Secretary Heller, we would have to face the fact that he would be unemployed within a couple of years. Although Heller was philosophically aligned with President Keeler, his dislike for Charles Logan was well known. Based on the reports CTU got this morning from the trauma center caring for Keeler, it was unlikely that he would live. If he did, he would not be able to complete his current term of office. Charles Logan would have to complete the term and then would probably run for election in his own right. I suspected the Heller would remain Secretary of Defense through the remainder of what would have been Keeler's term, but Larson would not keep him on if he won the next election. Thus, Tony would be out of a job in two years.

I could live with that. Tony needed to start somewhere and this was an excellent starting place. Heller knew everyone in the defense industry and it was likely that Tony could make contacts in the next two years that would lead to a job. I didn't tell Tony, but I liked the idea of going to Washington. I would talk to him about it later. As I told him, right now I wanted to just enjoy his company. I wanted to shower and dress and go get a marriage license. I was probably rushing things, but I didn't care. I had him back now and I had no plans to let go.

_Next Chapter: Part IV: Epilogue: Tony_


	7. Epilogue

Part IV: EPILOGUE

Tony

Fifty years ago. Can you believe it? It was 50 years ago today that Marwan wreaked such havoc on this country and I remember it like it was yesterday. Actually, I may remember it better than I remember yesterday. At my age the long term memory is a lot better than the short term memory. I was almost 40 that day. I'll be 90 next month, if I last that long. Truth be known, I think I dreaded turning 40 more than I mind turning 90. At the time 40 seemed old. Ninety, on the other hand, seems more like an accomplishment, something to be proud of. And overall, I'm in good health. Well, as good as it gets when you're my age. I get around the house okay, but when I go out, my daughter Monica insists that I use a cane. I hate that. It makes me look old! If Monica isn't paying attention when we leave the house I conveniently forget the cane. When she asks where it is, I tell her that I'm old and I can't keep track of those things. Monica just rolls her eyes. She looks so much like Michelle when she does that.

God! I miss my Michelle. I lost her two years ago. Doesn't seem right. By all rights, she should have outlived me. Don't men have shorter life spans? I was five years older than she and I never expected to live longer than she did. I didn't prepare myself for that. She seemed like she was in such good health. I just thought she had a bad cold or maybe the flu when we went to see the doctor. He listened to her lungs and said she had pneumonia and she was dehydrated. He put her in the hospital and that was pretty much it. She did okay at first, but the illness seemed to sap her strength. The doctor felt that she didn't have the strength to fight it and eventually her heart failed.

"She's 82," he told me as if that was supposed to make me feel any better. I was 87 and I wasn't laying there dying. Our children were there along with their spouses and children. Thank God for them. They got me through it. Not that I'll ever stop missing her, but at least I can get up in the morning and face the day. For the first few months it was a struggle to get out of bed.

Michelle was beautiful until the end. I didn't let them put her on any machines. She wouldn't have wanted that and I wouldn't have been able to remember her as being pretty. I sat next to her and held her hand and just watched her as the life ebbed away. Her breathing slowed and finally stopped. I could hardly believe it. I guess even though I knew she was dying, I didn't really believe it until she stopped breathing. Her hand went limp and her skin started to cool. I cried until I thought there weren't any more tears left and then I cried some more.

Once Michelle was gone, the kids didn't think I should live alone. They insisted that I spend the winters in Arizona with Monica and the summers in upstate New York with my son. He's the older of our two kids. John Bauer Almeida. Like his namesake, we call him Jack. We started out calling him John but it didn't seem to work. He was definitely Jack. Smart and ornery from the day he was born. He was Jack alright.

Once we got past the CTU years, Michelle and I had a storybook life. We remarried just a couple of weeks after we reconciled. We sold the house and the cars and most of our furniture and really started over. We took a second honeymoon at Niagara Falls and settled in Washington DC where I took the job with Secretary Heller. Taking that job was the best move I could have made. The job itself only lasted two years as Michelle and I expected from the start, but the contacts that I made because of it lasted a lifetime and so did my relationship with Jim Heller. After that, I worked for a defense contractor in North Carolina.

Jack was born 14 months after we moved to Washington. When we first moved there, Michelle considered taking the job Kate offered her with Warner Enterprises but it would have required a lot of travel and she wasn't interested in that. Instead she worked for a company that provided computer security for banks and brokerage houses. That job allowed her to work from home after Jack was born. She did that until we moved to North Carolina. By that time she was pregnant with Monica and decided not to work for a few years.

We lived in North Carolina for several years when someone I had worked with in Jim Heller's office approached me about starting a business with him. After much thought and discussion with Michelle, I agreed and we moved to upstate New York. The kids really grew up there and Michelle and I lived there until I retired. We had always loved North Carolina and the New York winters seemed to have gotten longer and longer, so we moved south. Jack took my place and runs half of the business now. He and his wife, Jenny, bought the house from us and kept a bedroom there for us to visit. Now I live there with them six months of the year.

It's kind of nice spending half the year with each of the kids. Jack and Jenny had just started dealing with "empty nest syndrome" when I first moved in with them. Their only child, A.J. (short for Antonio Juan) had just left for college. A quiet six months with Jack and Jenny gets me ready for the wild six months in Arizona that follows. Monica and her husband, Steve, have three teen-aged daughters. Raising daughters is a job that should only be given to saints. Michelle and I only had to raise one and I'm not sure if we raised her or she raised us.

The oldest is named after Michelle, but they call her Shelley. She's 19 and nothing like the grandmother she was named after. I'm never quite sure what color her hair will be on any given week. Nor can I keep track of the boyfriend of the week. By the time I commit his name to memory, he's gone. I'll say something stupid like, "So Shelley, are you going out with Derrick tonight?" and she'll make a face and say "Oh Grandpap, he was a jerk! I'm seeing Josh now." I taught Steve the art of cleaning his gun on the front porch right about the time that Shelley's dates are due to arrive. Steve thanked me later. He thinks that scared off at least one or two of them.

Allison is next. She's 15 and they have yet to invent a sport that Allie doesn't like or isn't good at. A tomboy since she first learned to run, she has excelled in soccer, basketball, softball and tennis. Allie and Shelley are polar opposites. Steve doesn't worry about Allie on dates. If the guy tries anything she doesn't like, she'll deck him. Her dates are more likely to come to the door with a tennis racket or set of golf clubs than flowers or candy.

The youngest is my little princess, Lauren. She turned 13 this year and with it got the worst case of hormones in the contiguous 48 states. She's a doll except for one week every month when simply breathing the same air as she might get you drawn and quartered. Steve makes sure his gun and ammunition are stored separately that week.

I joke about it, but I love those girls and they love me. I don't think a week goes by that one of them doesn't ask me to tell the story about how I tried to rescue Michelle from Stephen Saunders or how Michelle and I reunited in the middle of a terrorist attack. By the end of the story one of them ends up sighing, "That's so romantic, Grandpap!" while which ever one of them is currently PMSing sobs like a baby.

After 20 years with Monica and their girls, I think the Pope may seriously consider Steve for sainthood while he's still alive. I think Steve actually looks forward to the six months a year when I live in Arizona. At least it's a second drop of testosterone in the sea of estrogen that churns through that house. He looks so grateful to see me when he picks me up at the airport every October and so forlorn when he takes me back there for my trip to New York in April. I'm amazed at how much more I like him now than I did when he and Monica were dating and I thought he was just another testosterone laden frat boy who was looking for a way to get my daughter in bed with him. Twenty-some years later, it turns out he's been a faithful husband, a loving father and a good provider. I guess Michelle was right when she told me to leave the kid alone. Michelle was usually right if I took the time to listen to her.

Michelle and I had a wonderful life together. I was so blessed to have had her so many years. I look back on the events of that day and despite the loss of life, I'm not sorry that Habib Marwan did what he did. It resulted in my getting Michelle back and having such a happy life. Even Jack ended up doing well.

Michelle and I first heard from Jack about 18 months after he escaped. I got an email at work. Jack was always computer savvy and it wasn't that hard to track me down. The email looked like an advertisement, a piece of spam that I was about to delete. It was an advertisement for a vacation at a dude ranch in Alberta, Canada. There were pictures of a ranch house and the barns and stables and the horses and cattle. There was something odd about the advertisement. There was no pricing or travel information. No section for "frequently asked questions" or to "contact us". I looked carefully at the men on horseback and used some software I had to enhance the image. There I found Jack sitting atop a big black mare roping a calf. I laughed until I cried. I missed Jack but it was good to know that he was doing well. I saw David Palmer at a cocktail party at Jim Heller's house not long after that and knew that he would be happy that Jack was okay. Jack never admitted that it was Palmer who called him that day at CTU and warned him that his life was in danger, but I always knew that it was.

"I had a message from our friend," I told him when we had a moment alone.

"Our friend?" he asked. He said that as if he didn't know what I was talking about but I could tell by the tilt of his head and the sparkle in his eye that he understood.

"He's doing fine. He's working on a cattle ranch in Canada."

Palmer smiled. "I'm happy for him. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, tell him I said 'hello' and I hope he's found some happiness. I'll always regret what he was forced to give up for this country."

When Jack and I planned his escape, he told me that once it was safe to contact me he wanted me to tell Kim that he was alive. The part he hated most about the whole plan was that Kim would have to believe that he was dead. I wanted to tell her from the beginning. I knew that she and Chase would understand that for Jack's safety they would have to play the grieving family. Jack was afraid that they might not be convincing. Both the US and the Chinese governments were going to be looking for anything that might indicate that Jack was still alive. He also feared that the Chinese government might be vindictive enough to kidnap or hurt Kim in order to get to him. So I agreed to keep Kim in the dark until Jack thought it was safe.

Now that Jack had contacted me, I needed to tell Kim. Within a few weeks of Jack's email I had to take a trip out west. Michelle decided that she and the baby would come with me and visit her family. While we were there we went to see Kim and told her the truth. I downloaded Jack's email along with the images I had enhanced to a disc and took it with me. She was shocked and maybe just a little angry at first but then she saw the picture of Jack on the horse roping a calf and her face lit up.

"Look at his smile!" she exclaimed. "I can't remember when he last smiled like that. He's really happy, isn't he?"

Another year and half passed before we heard from him again. This time it was a Christmas card. We had moved to North Carolina by then and again, Jack was able to track us down. The card didn't carry a return address but had been mailed in Canada. I opened it to find a picture of a woman sitting up in a hospital bed looking tired but happy and holding a newborn baby. On the back it said "Molly and David". I could see a wedding ring on the woman's hand. Jack had truly started over; a new life, a new family, everything was new. I don't think I could have been happier for him. He so richly deserved every bit of happiness that he could grasp and I knew that, after all he had lived through, he would savor every minute of it.

Two years later we got another Christmas card. This one included a picture of the same woman with a little boy and another baby. On the reverse it read: Molly, David and Tony. I was honored that he would have named his son after me.

We continued to get subtle messages from Jack over the years: an occasional Christmas card with a picture of Molly and the boys or a post card from some picturesque part of Canada. Twelve years passed without either Michelle or me telling anyone other than Kim that Jack was still alive. It wasn't until I got a call from Audrey Raines, who by then was Audrey Hamilton and the mother of three young children, that I had to decide whether to break my silence or not.

Audrey called to say that her father was dying. Jim Heller and I had stayed close through the years despite the fact that he lived in Virginia and I lived in North Carolina and later, New York. Jim had had two heart attacks in the past year or so that left his heart pretty weak. I talked to him about once a month and over the last two months could hear a distinct difference in his voice. Audrey called to say that his heart was failing and the doctors didn't expect him to live more than a few days. He was living at her home and when he was awake, he was lucid, but he was sleeping about 18-20 hours a day. She said if I wanted to see him that I was one of several people he was willing to see. Otherwise he was not taking any visitors.

I knew right away that I had to see him and say goodbye to him. He had played an important role in my life and in getting me back on the right track and I wanted to thank him one more time. I suspected he wanted to thank me again, too, for saving Audrey's life as if he hadn't thanked me dozens of times already. Deciding whether to see Jim or not was easy. The harder decision was whether or not to tell him about Jack. It wasn't until I saw him that I knew I had to tell him.

I arrived at Audrey's house two days after she called me. We greeted each other warmly. Audrey and her husband and Michelle and I had become friends over the years. We didn't see each other very often but maintained as much contact as busy people with young families can manage to maintain. She led me to a sunny sitting room where Jim sat sleeping in a reclining chair.

"Dad," she whispered shaking his shoulder gently. "Look who's here to see you."

Jim opened his eyes slowly and smiled as he recognized me. "Tony," he said in a quiet voice. He reached for my hand. He didn't really shake it, but held it weakly. "Sit down," he directed me. I sat in a chair Audrey had pulled right next to Jim's.

Audrey excused herself and said that she had some errands to run. I was happy for the opportunity to be alone with Jim.

"So," Jim started, "you came to be part of the death watch."

I had to smile. Jim was as crusty as ever. "I prefer not to think of it that way. I'd rather think that I came to thank a good friend for all he's done for me."

"You can think of it any way you like, Tony, but let's tell it like it is. I'm not going to be around much longer and you're here to say goodbye. I'm not bitter or angry about it. I've had a great run. It's time for me to move on." He paused for a moment and got his breath before going on. "If you are unfortunate enough to live longer than your beautiful wife like I was, you'll understand what I'm saying. I haven't exactly been sitting around waiting to die ever since Susan died, but I've always known that whenever it happens, I'm ready. I know she'll be waiting for me. Knowing that takes away any fear or hesitation I have about dying. It's been a long time since I've seen Susan and I'm ready to see her again, Tony."

There was an awkward pause and I nodded as if I understood but I doubted that it was possible to understand Jim's position unless you were in it. All these years later, I do understand. I know now what Jim was talking about.

Jim continued, "You know, Tony, I've been thinking a lot about Jack recently. When Jack was killed, it bothered me for a number of reasons, but two reasons really stuck in my craw. First, I hated that he was taken down in the prime of his life. Second, it bothered me that he died trying to escape. If he had died in the line of duty, like CTU told the press, I would have had an easier time accepting it. I could definitely imagine Jack dying trying to save other people. The fact that he died trying to escape troubled me for a long time. Since I've been sick over the last year, it has occurred to me that Jack did the right thing. Most of us don't get to pick and choose when and how we die. That's left up to someone who knows a lot more than we do. But Jack died on his own terms. He knew the likelihood of escape from CTU was slim, but he took that chance. He got to choose how he died. He didn't wait around for the Chinese to kill him or for his heart to wear out like mine has. He died on his own terms and in a way, I think he was lucky."

I looked at the floor not sure where to begin. I finally looked up and met Jim's gaze. "Jim, I have to tell you something and I don't quite know where to begin." I stopped and took a deep breath. Jim was watching me intently. His blue eyes had not faded despite his declining health. "Jack is alive."

"He's alive? How is that possible? I thought you were there when he died."

I explained how we had staged Jack's death and substituted one of the terrorist's bodies. I went on to tell him that Jack had been living in Canada, although I didn't have an address, and I showed him the pictures of Jack's wife and sons.

"I can't believe you got away with this," Jim said with an amused smile. "I'm so happy for him."

"Jim, I don't have to tell you that no one else can know about this," I said. "The Chinese would still love to get their hands on Jack and if he is ever caught, Michelle and Chloe and I are accessories. We could all go to prison. I'm sure you'd like to tell Audrey, but I have to ask you not to tell her."

Jim nodded his understanding. He knew what was at stake and would never risk Jack's safety or the safety of those of us who helped him. "If you ever talk to him, Tony, tell him I was proud to work with him and to call him my friend. He is a hero in every sense of the word. I'm sorry that he's spent the last 12 years in exile but I'm happy that he's alive and well and I hope he's happy with his new family."

I could tell that our conversation had exhausted him. He drifted off to sleep in the reclining chair still holding my hand. Jim Heller died four days later without divulging the secret I had told him. I can honestly say that when he died it was like losing my own father. I still miss him as much as I miss my father.

The years went by quickly. Jack and Monica were growing up so fast that Michelle and I could hardly keep up with them. We continued to get occasional mail from Jack, usually at least every two years. It was Christmas, about six years after Jim Heller died that we got a surprise in the mail from Jack. Inside of the card was a folded sheet of paper. The paper was a confirmation for a cottage at a rustic resort near Lake Manitoba for the first week in July. The name on the confirmation was "Jeff McCarthy." At the bottom of the card was a brief note: "Hope you two can join us. Molly and Jeff."

Jack had finally made the decision that it was safe for us to meet and I agreed with him. Charles Larson and most of his cabinet members were now either dead or old and in ill health and the Chinese government had changed hands. The current Chinese government would have no need to settle an old score with an American agent over a long forgotten incident. Any risk to Jack or to those who helped him escape was minimal at this point.

Michelle and I immediately blocked off that week and made travel plans. We flew to Chicago and dropped the kids, who were teenagers by then, off with my parents. Then we flew to Winnipeg and drove the five hours to the resort. As we drove up in front of the cottage Michelle and I both noticed a slight movement of the curtain on the front window. We smiled at each other knowing that Jack was watching for us, making sure that before he opened the door he knew who was on the other side. Once a spy always I spy, I guess.

Jack opened the door as we stepped onto the front porch. Michelle was in front of me and he immediately took her into his arms to hug and kiss her. He looked good; time had treated him well. His skin was tan and had taken on the weathered look of someone who worked outdoors much of the time. His hair was a little thinner and some of it might have been gray but it was impossible to tell since it was bleached a pale blond by the sun.

"It's so good to see you, Michelle," he said still holding her in a tight embrace. He looked over at me and, still hugging Michelle, he reached for my hand. "Tony," was all he said as our hands met. Michelle stepped back and Jack and I hugged and slapped each other on the back the way men do when they are embarrassed by such displays of affection. We each took a step back and tried to pretend that we didn't have tears in our eyes.

"Come in, come in," Jack said holding the door open. "I want you to meet Molly."

Molly stood somewhat awkwardly in the kitchen obviously waiting for us to have our own private reunion. She was an attractive woman with blond hair and striking green eyes. She was probably a couple of years younger than Michelle, which would make her roughly nine or ten years younger than Jack. She greeted us warmly.

"It's so nice to finally meet you," she said in a strong Canadian accent. "Jeff has told me so much about you. I guess I should thank you. According to what Jeff has said, without you two he wouldn't have had the chance to move to Canada and we would have never met. So, thank you."

I looked at Jack and raised my eyebrows not sure how much of the story Molly knew. Jack understood the look I was giving him. "Molly knows the whole story. I thought it was only fair if she was going to marry me that she knew everything. I'm still amazed that it didn't scare her off." Jack put his arm around his wife's waist and pulled her close. He pressed his lips against her temple and kissed her.

The week together was great. Jack told Michelle and me all about his escape from LA to Canada. As I thought, he had stowed away on a freight train going north. He was able to take trains or hitchhike up the west coast and finally into Canada. Once he was in Canada he worked his way east from British Columbia and into Alberta. It was there that he hooked on as a ranch hand on a cattle ranch. The owner didn't ask a lot of questions. It was his busy season and Jack was strong and willing to work. Jack and the other hands lived in rooms above the stables. In his free time, Jack was able to do some research at a local library. He searched vital records and found a death certificate on a child named Jeffrey McCarthy. The child had died in infancy and had a birth date similar to Jack's. It was at that point he assumed McCarthy's identity. As soon as the busy season at the ranch was over, Jack collected his pay and moved to Calgary using his new identity.

Once in Calgary he needed a job. Since he couldn't provide any work references, it was hard to get any kind of decent job, so he took whatever odd jobs he could find. Eventually he saw an advertisement in the paper for a ranch manager about 60 miles outside of the city. He called the number and set up an interview. The second he arrived on the property, he knew that he wanted the job. The scenery was beautiful. It was so different from LA and Washington DC. This was the perfect place to start over.

The owner of the ranch was a man named Theodore Anderson. He was a big man with a shock of white hair. Jack guessed his age to be around 60. Anderson owned a significant spread of land and raised cattle and pigs. He had been seriously injured a few weeks earlier when he was thrown from his horse. Although he was expected to recover, it would probably be several months before he was able to run the ranch again. In the meantime, he needed someone to do it for him. And considering his age, he had decided it was a good idea to keep a manager on full time. Jack had to do the hard sell to convince Anderson to hire him. The truth was that he couldn't provide any references that he knew how to run a ranch. Since he was using another name when he did the seasonal work at the other ranch, he couldn't even ask that ranch owner for a reference.

Anderson was a coarse, straight-talking gentleman who finally looked at Jack and said, "Son, you haven't given me one straight answer since you got here. You walk in and tell me you want to manage my ranch but you don't have any references. I get the distinct feeling that you're hiding something from me or maybe you're running from something. Tell me why I should hire you."

"Sir, you're right. I am running. I'm running for a lot of reasons. Those reasons are personal and I don't want to explain. I need to start over. I assure you that I'm not in any trouble and I won't cause any trouble. If you want me to prove myself, I'll be happy to do that. Give me two months. If you'll give me the room and board, you don't have to pay me. At the end of the two months, if you're satisfied with my work, you can pay me the back pay and hire me on. If you're not happy, you tell me and I'll leave. No questions asked. Do we have a deal, sir?"

Anderson admitted later that there was something about Jack that he liked. "How can I pass up that deal, Mr. McCarthy?" Ted reached out his hand to shake Jack's. "The room's in the barn loft. You get the room on the right with the attached bathroom. The other two hands, Dylan and Kurt, share the room in the back. Don't let them tell you otherwise. The cook will bring dinner over for the three of you at six o'clock sharp. You start first thing tomorrow morning. Dylan and Kurt will show you around. At this time of year, I expect your work day to start by five a.m. Once winter sets in, if you're still working here, you can sleep in a bit and start at six."

"I understand, sir," Jack told him. They shook hands and Jack was about to leave the room when a voice from the door behind him made him turn and look.

"Daddy, I hate to interrupt, but it's time for your medicine." The voice belonged to a pretty blond who Jack estimated to be in her early thirties.

"I hope those fool doctors know what they're doing feeding me all of these medicines," Anderson complained. "McCarthy, this is my daughter Mary Louise. She's a nurse over at the hospital and in her spare time she tries to mother me."

Jack extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Anderson," Jack told her. He was immediately struck by her good looks.

"Likewise, Mr. McCarthy," she said. "And everyone calls me Molly."

"And I'm Jeff," he said. Jack told me that he never believed in love at first sight until he met Molly Anderson.

The job as ranch manager worked out and Jack continued to work for Ted Anderson for the next two years. During that time he and Molly began dating and fell in love. As Jack's second year of working for Anderson was coming to a close, Jack saw an opportunity that he couldn't pass up. There was a small ranch for sale about a hundred miles from the Anderson ranch that Jack desperately wanted to buy. He liked working for Ted, but it was time for him to be on his own and he wanted Molly to go with him.

He took her to see the ranch and told her that he wanted to buy the ranch and he wanted to marry her but admitted that there was something that she needed to know about him. Molly suspected that Jack had been hiding something from her. He never talked about his past. It was as if his life started when he started working for her father. Sometimes that bothered her, but she loved him so much that she was able to ignore it.

Jack sat her down and told her everything. He told her about his years in the military and about Teri and Kim and his work at CTU. He ended the story by telling her about faking his death and escaping to Canada with the help of friends. He also told her that if she wanted to marry him, that this would have to be their secret forever; no one could ever know. But now that she did know, if she chose not to marry him, he would have to disappear and find another identity and start over again. According to Jack, Molly didn't hesitate for a second. She was happy to know the truth and was more than willing to keep it a secret.

Jack and Molly lived on the ranch until he died about ten years ago. Until then Michelle and I got together with them every five years or so. We wanted to go to his funeral but it was in the middle of winter and that part of Canada gets pretty well buried under a mountain of snow. Not to mention that Michelle and I weren't young anymore ourselves. The trip up there was grueling and it had become too much for us. So we grieved at home for our friend who had, in essence, died twice.

So here I sit in a rocking chair on the patio, an old man who can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but remembering clearly all that happened at CTU the day that Habib Marwan decided to take out his hatred of the United States on innocent Americans. I think back at everyone who worked so hard that day and remember them fondly. Not many of us are left. Bill Buchanan died of cancer just two years later. Curtis Manning died in the line of duty just a few years after that. David Palmer suffered a stroke about ten years after that terrorist attack and was unable to speak. He died about a year later. Chloe and Edgar both died within the last couple of years. Erin Driscoll never returned to CTU after her daughter committed suicide there but worked at Division for a few years. Once she left there I lost track of her. Audrey is still living in Virginia with her husband. About 20 years ago, I finally told her that Jack was alive. I think part of her was angry that we had allowed her to grieve for him and had kept her in the dark for so many years, but another part of her was happy for him.

"Dad," Monica called to me. "Alexandra Newhall is here from channel 11 to interview you for the retrospective they're doing on the terrorist attacks. Are you ready to see her?"

I sighed. "I'm ready, Sweetheart," I tell her. I look at the clear blue sky and without even hearing the questions, I know what Ms. Newhall will ask. I've been interviewed dozens of times. They all want to hear about the override and the nuclear football and the missile and tracking down Marwan. They ask philosophical questions like "How did that day change this country?" As if I could answer that. What I can answer is how that day changed my life, but they don't ask that question. They don't want to hear the story I want to tell; the one about how an agent who refused to take orders from the White House and redeploy back to CTU saved my life and how that same man was so unjustly sent into a lifetime of exile or how I got the love of my life back and how we lived happily ever after. They never let me tell the story I wanted to tell. But you know, today - screw them all - I might just tell it anyway.

**THE END**

_Thank you to everyone who has read the story and special thanks to those of you who have reviewed. I hope you aren't upset with me for not giving Michelle's POV in the epilogue, but as this chapter took shape in my mind, I decided that telling the story from Tony's POV as a widower what far more poignant. I hope you agree. I'm sure you'll let me know if you don't! lol _

_I hope to write something again soon. I'm fresh out of ideas right now, but I never know when something good might occur to me. Whenever that time comes, I hope you'll all be there to read it! Until then, happy 24 dreams to all. _


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